


Draco Does It All Again: Second Year

by Emma_with_her_head_in_the_clouds



Series: Draco Does it All Again [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Gen, Good Draco Malfoy, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Protagonist Draco, Swearing, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2020-06-03 09:58:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 43,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19461616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emma_with_her_head_in_the_clouds/pseuds/Emma_with_her_head_in_the_clouds
Summary: Draco's off back to Hogwarts for his second second year. Now he's secured Harry's friendship, he needs to keep it. Plus he needs to figure out, who actually is the Heir of Slytherin?





	1. Chapter 1

Draco's parents had both met him on platform 9 3/4. They did their usual keeping up appearances and subtle polite small-talk, but Draco could tell by how tightly his mother hugged him that a worried interrogation likely awaited him at home. They'd heard about the adventure with the Philosopher's Stone then.

He said goodbye to his friends before being side-along apparated away. His dad scowled at them, but didn't say anything, which Draco took as a win.

Sure enough, as soon as they got back to the manor, his mother dragged them to her favourite sitting room and engaged her worried face. A younger Draco might have been intimidated by his parents; both sat together on the sofa and staring at him in his seat in the arm chair.

"Are you alright, darling!?" his mother asked, "Your father has been hearing worrying rumours about events at the school that Dumbledore and the Ministry have been trying to keep quiet." _The Ministry?_

"Dumbledore is clearly incompetent. Animagi hiding in the school. Rogue teachers. And is it true he was hiding some kind of dangerous artefact there?" his father complained. _Ah, animagi. I'd almost forgotten about Pettigrew._

"I'm fine," he tried to reassure them.

"You might not have been!" It clearly didn't reassure his mother. "What happened?"

How much detail should he tell them? Should he mention Voldemort? They'd definitely panic, and not in a good way. Draco hadn't really come up with a plan for what he was going to do when/if the Dark Lord properly returned. Should he try and get his parents not to follow him. That would likely result in them all being immediately murdered. But he didn't want the Malfoy name to be associated with "Death Eaters" anymore. This was supposedly a second chance.

Draco decided to take a risk.

"…and then Quirrell revealed he was possessed by Voldemort." Both his parents' jaws dropped.

"W… what?" his father managed to get out. Draco had never seen him look so uncomposed before.

"The Dark Lord's apparently been floating around as a body-less spirit for the past decade. He'd managed to persuade Quirrell to host him in a failed attempt of getting form. It really was pitiful."

"The Dark Lord's not dead?"

"Just. I'd hardly call him alive. It was pathetic."

"Draco!" his father yelled, finally getting some presence, "If the Dark Lord's alive… You can't talk about him like that… He'll…"

"Father," Draco interrupted, forcefully, "This changes nothing. I will not be following him, particularly not now. I'm sure once he was a great and powerful figure. But now he's just a shell. Sure, he may find his way to start dragging himself back to power. But I do not believe he will succeed. And I will not be subservient. Not to anyone. Definitely not to him. Trust me, if you'd seen him, you wouldn't want to be either."

"So you truly want to throw all your cards in to Potter's cause? I was concerned about your friendship. It sounds like I had good reason."

"Do you not trust me, father? Will you not allow me to choose my own path? The one I think will be best for the family name in the end? Potter may sometimes be Dumbledore's puppet. He may be ridiculously Gryffindor. But I truly believe we could shape this world for the better at each other's side. I've earned his trust over the course of this year. I know you might not always like the way things are going. But like it or not, Potter is going to be leading the way, if not now, then one day. So you can either let me stay by his side, and nudge him in the right directions, or you can try and tear me away, and lose your in with a powerful figure." _Well, I've said it now._ Draco had said more than he meant to then, and got a bit off track, but that was one hell of a monologue, if he said so himself.

Once his parents had finished interrogating him about everything to do with Quirrell, the Dark Lord, and the Philosopher's Stone, his mother brought the topic back to Pettigrew.

"But how did you know, darling? And do you know what that might mean?"

"Well obviously I didn't know. I just thought something was odd." [ _Lies_ ]. "And what do you mean?"

"Well, the Ministry are keeping it all quiet. It'll be chaos when it all gets out. Particularly because they're thinking they're going to have to give Sirius Black a retrial!"

"Does that really matter?"

"He's one of the most infamous people in Azkaban! He was always a bit odd. You know what they often said about madness running in my family. A decade in Azkaban won't have helped." _It definitely didn't do your sister's sanity much good._ "Plus, you would have probably been in line to inherit the Black estate. If he gets acquitted, it'll probably go to Sirius. His mother never did manage to officially disown him." _Ah, money, of course._ Not that Draco didn't like money. He very much did. But he was already the Malfoy heir, so he was hardly going to be poor either way.

Apparently the Ministry was moving towards trials, for both Pettigrew and Black. They must have decided they'd collected enough evidence. They probably wouldn't be able to keep things quiet much longer; Draco was surprised they'd managed this long. If there was one word he'd use to describe the Ministry, 'competent' wouldn't be it.

Eventually Draco managed to change the topic from his adventures, to ask his parent's how their years had been going. He sat back and sipped his tea, half listening to them go on. A cake wouldn't go amiss. He'd call for an elf, but he didn't want to distract him parents when they were no longer talking about him. His mother must have had the same idea, because she summoned one between anecdotes.

It was Dobby. Draco had forgotten about his concerns about the elf, but the glare the thing was giving him as it passed a plate of mini cakes around reminded him. He'd add keeping an eye on him to his to-do list.

In fact, that evening, Draco decided to start a new to-do list. Two new lists. Many of the incomplete items on his last list were about educating Harry in being a proper wizard. Enough that Harry merited his own list.

> _Teach/talk about with Potter list:_
> 
>   1. _Quality tailoring_
>   2. _Wand care_
>   3. _Glasses_
>   4. _Basic Latin_
>   5. _Subtlety_
>   6. _Musical talent_
>   7. _Occlumency_
> 


He'd added the last one after reflecting on his own practice of the skill. He was quite pleased with his progress, and thought it was a skill that would be useful for his friend to have too. Friends. It couldn't hurt to teach Weasley and Granger too.

His parents had announced that the three of them were going to go stay at the Malfoy estate in France for a couple of weeks in a few days' time. Draco would see about trying to meet up with Harry to start on the other list items after that.

He moved on to his to-do list proper. Second year. What happened in second year? _The heir of Slytherin!!!_ Oh, yes, this was a year when Draco could definitely intervene again. What could he remember from last time? The heir was roaming the school. He never did find out who that actually was. People got petrified. No one died though. That was definitely a record he needed to maintain. Once again, Potter got up to some heroics at the end of the year. Saving the Weasley girl from the Slytherin's secret chamber, if the rumours were to be believed.

> _To do list #2:_
> 
>   1. _Save everyone_
>   2. _Manage my parents_
>   3. _Keep an eye on Dobby_
>   4. _Keep a track on Pettigrew/Black situation_
>   5. _Watch out for Dark Lord plots_
>   6. _Find out about Slytherin's monster_
>   7. _Prevent anyone from being killed by the heir_
>   8. _Find out who the heir is_
>   9. _Find out about the Chamber of Secrets_
> 


He'd changed _"not start a war with my parents"_ to _"manage my parents"._ He felt that reflected the situation better. List made, he settled down, back in his own bed. It had always been more comfortable than his one at Hogwarts. As he dropped off to sleep, he reflected on the past year. He'd been back in time for almost 12 months ago. On the whole, he felt he'd made good progress. Not much had changed yet, but he didn't think he'd fucked anything up. And he'd cemented his place in Potter's inner circle. Now he just needed to keep up the good work.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So thought I might as well get the story going, whilst I'm on a roll. Comments, feedback, constructive criticism, pointing out of mistakes, as always would be appreciated.

The holiday in France was actually surprisingly relaxing. Draco found himself actually enjoying it. He managed to persuade his father to take him sight-seeing at some of the old wizarding sights (original twelve-year-old Draco would probably have spent the whole time complaining he was bored, but the more mature him found them fascinating). Mother tried to get him to go to the beach with her, which he turned down. _The beach! With his skin! No thank you!_ No amount of sun-potions would prevent him from ending up looking like, well, like Quirrell after his fight with Harry actually. _Urgh_. Draco cringed. He hadn't actually meant to make that analogy, but now he had, he couldn't get the imagine out of his head.

He picked up some books he thought Hermione might like in a bookstore (almost playing chicken with his father to see if he'd say anything; he didn't). He probably should buy something for Ron and Harry too, but didn't think they'd appreciate books much. In the end he did buy Harry a book; one on the quidditch teams of France, with discussion of how play differed between them. After some deliberation, he bought Ron some kind of new strategy game that was apparently very popular in France at the moment. Ron was pretty good at chess, so he might enjoy it (plus he didn't think Ron would be able to find a way to be offended by it, unlike some of the other possible gifts he'd considered).

Hermione replied surprisingly quickly (considering the owl had to fly from France to England and back), thanking him for his gift, asking him all about the wizarding sites he'd visited (she'd holidayed in France multiple times, but not since she'd found out she was a witch), and listing in great detail everything she'd been up to so far this holidays (not much, by the sound of it, but Draco wasn't entirely sure what some of the muggle activities she'd mentioned were).

Ron's reply was much shorter, and arrived after Draco had returned home. Harry hadn't replied yet, which he thought was a little odd. He normally seemed mildly more punctual than Ron.

One day, when his father seemed in a good mood, and they were both sat in the library, Draco decided to ask him what he knew about the Chamber of Secrets. He'd clearly known some things, but had been reluctant to tell Draco last time, on the argument that it would look suspicious if Draco knew too much. But since he wouldn't know Draco had any ulterior motive to ask, apart from pure curiosity triggered by something he happened to read in a book, that shouldn't be a factor this time. Therefore, Draco was surprised by how shocked and _guilty?_ his father looked when he asked, and how he quickly shut down the conversation, claiming to not know what he was talking about and leaving the room. _Well, that was very suspicious…_

News finally broke from the Ministry about Pettigrew's continued existence, and forthcoming trial. The press was having a field day, and it seemed like the whole wizarding community had an opinion. Draco was quite pleased to hear he was conspicuously absent from the story; the discovery of Pettigrew seemed to have been accredited to the Boy-Who-Lived, and Draco was more than happy for Harry to take his glory.

More time passed, and Draco exchanged more letters with Ron and Hermione (singular for the former, plural for the latter), but still no reply came from Harry, which seemed extra odd with the recent press updates. He decided to bring the topic up over breakfast one morning, on seeing that he had another reply from Ron, but nothing from Harry yet again.

"I don't suppose you've seen any letters from Harry, have you?" he asked his parents.

"What, is the Boy-Who-Lived ignoring you?" his father asked, sounding slightly smug.

"He's not been replying to my letters. It seems a bit odd…" He opened the one from Ron. "Ron says he and Hermione haven't heard anything from him, either. I wonder if something's happened…"

"I'm sure we would all have heard if some fate had befallen the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Your father's right. I'm sure he's fine," his mother agreed.

Just then, something caught Draco's eye. Dobby skulking out of the room. It might just have been the elf's normal skulking, but Draco got the feeling it was more than that. He excused himself from the table and went to follow him.

He cornered the elf in a corridor near the kitchen. The elf was about to apparate away, but Draco ordered it to stay. It looked particularly dishevelled, even by Dobby's standards (and father made the elf punish himself _a lot_ ; the elf's discipline was terrible).

"Dobby, do you know why Harry isn't replying to my letters?" he asked, trying to put as much authority into his voice as possible. The elf scowled at him, but also looked shifty as fuck.

"Harry Potter's owl is not allowed out," he eventually replied. Which, if true, still wasn't a complete answer. Harry could have sent replies with the owls delivering his post.

"Why isn't Harry's owl allowed out?"

"Harry Potter is in trouble with Harry Potter's relatives. He received an official warning for Under-age magic." _I would have thought I might have heard about that? What did Harry do?_

"The Ministry won't detect if you go there, will they?" he asked Dobby, "As long as you don't do any magic whilst you're there?" He took the silence as a yes. "You will go to see Harry to give him a letter from me. You will wait for him to write a reply, and you will bring it right back to me. Understood?"

"Yes, master Draco," the elf replied, reluctantly.

Draco was sat reading in the library when the elf returned, dropped his letter, and scarpered. Draco soon found out why the elf had been so keen to make a quick getaway. He was going to kill him! According to Harry's letter, Dobby had been stealing Harry's post the whole summer (the real reason no one had been getting any replies from him), then turned up, ruined his Uncle's dinner party by dropping a dessert with a hover charm (the real reason Harry had got the warning for Under-age magic, with the spell being mistakenly attributed to him) after offering some vague warning about danger and that Harry shouldn't return to Hogwarts, and now Harry was locked in his bedroom.

This couldn't stand. Draco needed to do something. He nearly ordered Dobby to go fetch Harry immediately, but that might just get Harry in further trouble. He wondered about asking his parents for help, but they might be unwilling (or try to use it to their advantage, in a way which wouldn't benefit Draco's plans). He needed to speak with his friends, and he wasn't waiting for a letter.

He seemed to recall the Weasley house was called 'The Burrow'. He was pretty sure he'd made some not-kind jokes about it in his previous life. He was fairly certain no one had ever floo-called there from Malfoy Manor, but there was no reason he shouldn't be able to. The fire in the library wasn't connected to the public floo, but the one in the sitting room next door was (albeit behind wards; ones Draco could easily dismantle).

"The Burrow!" he shouted, taking a breath before sticking his head in the fire. He really hated floo calling, but it was considered vaguely more polite than just flooing straight through. His call might not be received too well in the Weasley household as it was. Once he'd managed to orientate himself, he realised the bemused ginger head staring at him was one of the twin terrors.

"Little Malfoy! What are you doing in our fire, I wonder?"

"I need to speak with your brother!" The twin stepped away for one second, and Draco sighed. That was easier than he thought it might be. Or so he thought, until the twin came back with his doppelganger.

"Hello Draco!" twin two called, "I heard you wanted to speak to me?"

"No! I need to speak with Ron!"

"Well, why didn't you say so?" asked twin one, acting dumb.

"I did!"

"No, you said 'my brother'. I have four others if you don't like this one. Though Bill and Charlie aren't actually here. I could offer you Percy? In fact, you can have Percy!"

"Please can I speak with Ron!?" Draco cried, exasperated.

"No need to get testy! I'll go get him, shall I?"

"Please!"

"Hey mate, what's up?"

"It's Harry." Ron face suddenly switched from very chill to very concerned.

"Is he okay?"

"Yes, but…"

Draco quickly filled Ron in on an abridged version of what had happened.

"We need to go rescue him! We could take dad's car. I'm sure Fred and George would help!" _That blasted car_. Draco was hit with a memory of Ron and Harry arriving at Hogwarts in a flying car. That was their second year too, right? He'd found how much they got in trouble funny at the time, rooting for them to get expelled.

"NO!" he yelled. "We'd only land him in more trouble. Look, are your parents there?"

"Mum went out shopping, but should be back soon. Why?"

"Because things will probably go better if an adult witch or wizard goes to collect Harry, not some school kids."

"Oh yeah, I guess. But do we know where Harry lives?"

"I'll ask Dobby."

"Can we trust him? Like, after everything he's done? Why would he do that, anyway?"

"Who knows why Dobby does anything. He's always been a bit wrong in the head. But he'll tell me the correct address if I directly order him too."

Plan made, Draco left it in Ron's hands. Hopefully his friend wouldn't fuck it up.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's direct quotes from the books in this chapter (and probably in other chapters, if I forget to mention). Turns out Chamber of Secrets is one of the two HP books I actually own my own copy of (not sure if that will speed up my writing or not).

Draco didn't hear anything all afternoon, which was kind of worrying. Maybe Ron had decided to reply by owl post instead, and that was why he hadn't heard anything yet.

He'd tried to have a frank discussion with Dobby about what on Earth the elf thought he was doing, and why. He didn't manage to get much out of him before (even trying to emulate his father and threatening corporal punishment had little effect). One thing he did establish was that the elf had a, quite frankly, unhealthy obsession with Harry for some unknown reason, and did not believe that Draco cared about Harry's well-being.

Draco was sat in his room, doing a bit of post-supper reading when he was summoned to his father's study by Hetty, one of the other elves. _I wonder what this is about?_

"Father, you asked for me?"

"Care to explain why there was a _Weasley_ in my fireplace just now?"

"Ron called back?" His father did not look to share Draco's relief. "I… erm… had to call him earlier. It was important. It was about Harry. I'll… I'll call him back from the sitting room. And tell him to be more careful calling me in future."

"There are wards on the sitting room fireplace…" his father replied slowly. Draco just raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'you think some wards can stop me?'. His father's annoyance seemed to abate very slightly, with very well concealed pride.

The first thing Draco noticed when he got his eyes to focus from the Weasley's fireplace was Ron pacing back and forth. Then behind him he spotted Harry. He sighed in relief at seeing his friend safe, and not noticeably worst-for-wear.

"Draco!" Ron cried, "Man, your dad is kind of scary." _Oh shit, what did father say to him?_

"Sorry, I think you surprised him. I'm not really meant to use the floo."

"Oh right. Sorry, did I get you in trouble?"

"Not really. And I'm glad you called. I was getting worried. What took you so long?"

"When I told mum, I'm not sure if she believed me at first. Then she insisted we should wait for dad to come home from work so he could come with us. Which of course led to him spending ages trying to question Harry's family about muggle things, whilst mum was busy trying to shout at them about locking Harry in his room. It was chaos."

"Are you alright mate?" Draco asked Harry.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for telling Ron to come get me."

"I'd have come rescue you soon anyway!" Ron protested. "Fred and George would have helped me fly the car there to get you!"

"Which could only have gone well…" Draco muttered under his breath. "But seriously, whatever way it happened, I'm glad you're alright. I'm so sorry about Dobby. I don't know what he thought he was doing. I've tried asking him, but he won't give me a straight answer."

"It's okay."

Ron asked if Draco wanted to come round sometime and play a bit of quidditch or something. He did, but didn't give a definitive answer. He wasn't sure if his parents had reached the level of acceptance of his friendships to allow him to go round there yet. After his father's reaction to the floo call, it was probably best to not try asking yet.

His parents invited Crabbe and Goyle round a couple of times. They weren't exactly great company, but at least they weren't bad on broomsticks, so the three of them were able to spend the parentally-mandated-bonding-time flying.

The Hogwarts letter arrived. Draco was bemused to see all the books by Lockhart on his booklist. _That bozo_. He was quite possibly the worst Defence teacher they had, and that was saying something. _Didn't he end up in St Mungo's in the end?_ Draco recalled faint rumours that Ron and Harry had been the ones to put him there. _Well, this should be interesting_.

Draco's father would be taking him to Diagon Alley to get his school stuff this year. He even promised him a new racing broom (which Draco was quite looking forward to getting, even if it wasn't as exciting as first time around). Draco wanted to get on the quidditch team again. He had to admit he'd missed playing quidditch. Plus, on the pitch was probably a good place to be to try and rescue Harry from the near-death incidents which would inevitably occur. Draco wouldn't be bribing his way on to the team this time though. His teammates could buy their own brooms. (It wasn't because Draco wanted an excuse if he ended up losing to Gryffindor…).

They ended up in Knockturn alley first. Apparently father had some business to deal with. There'd be time to get Draco's stuff afterwards. His father warned him not to touch anything as they entered Borgin and Burkes. _As if I would be idiotic enough to touch any of this stuff. Most of it is probably cursed._ Borgin had just started trying to suck up to his father when Draco heard his name called. He turned around. Harry was stood there, looking confused and messy, even for him. His glasses were shattered, and he was covered in soot.

"Harry! What on Earth are you doing in here?"

"I'm not sure. I was meant to be going to Diagon Alley with the Weasleys but I think something went wrong with the floo. Where am I?"

"Knockturn Alley."

"Where's that?"

"Mr Potter," his father interrupted, "I don't believe we've met before."

"Harry, this is my father. Father, this is Harry Potter."

"Pleased to meet you," father said (but not really looking like he meant it), holding out a hand. Harry cautiously took it.

"And you…" he replied nervously.

"Shall we get you back to Diagon Alley? Can't be having anything happen to the Boy-Who-Lived after all, can we?" With that, Mr Malfoy swung a wand over Harry, fixing his glasses and removing most of the soot from his clothing. Harry noticeably flinched at first. Mr Malfoy paid no attention to that, placing an arm on his shoulder and guiding him out of the shop.

The walk was quiet, and awkward, until they got to Diagon Alley. Then it was just awkward. Hermione was stood on the steps outside Gringotts, and came running towards them when she spotted them. Draco could see his father scowling at her obviously muggle outfit of jeans and a T-shirt.

"Harry, Draco!" she called. "It's wonderful to see you! How are you? Are you coming to Gringotts? Where's Ron?" Harry started muttering in reply about losing the Weasleys, when the people in question came into view, running towards them.

"Harry," Mr Weasley panted, "We hoped you'd only gone one grate too far. Molly's frantic- she's coming now."

"Where did you come out?" Ron asked.

"Knockturn Alley," Draco answered, when it appeared Harry wasn't going to.

"Brilliant!" the twin terrors chorused in unison.

"We've never been allowed in," Ron complained. His mother and sister came charging in to view to join the Weasley boys who were already there.

"Oh, Harry-oh, my dear- you could have been anywhere-" Mrs Weasley cried, grabbing him and seemingly inspecting him for injuries.

"Quite," Draco's father remarked. "What would people say, if something was to happen to the Boy-Who-Lived when he was meant to be in your care?" The Weasleys seemed to notice him for the first time. Mr Weasley's face turned distinctly angrier.

"Well, you're alright, aren't you Harry?" Harry just nodded. Mrs Weasley was still fussing over him. Mr Malfoy made a disapproving sniff.

"Well, what were _you_ doing in Knockturn Alley?" Mr Weasley asked him.

"That's none of your business." There was a few seconds of angry glaring.

"So, Draco…" Ron began, "do you want to come around with us?" Draco looked to his father.

"I don't know if I trust my son with you," father sneered, "it appears your family has a problem with losing children who are meant to be in their care."

"Father, I'll be fine. We'll stick to the main street," Draco replied, before anyone else could say anything in retaliation.

"Hmph. Fine. I'll meet you in Flourish and Blotts in an hour." He gave Mr Weasley a steely gaze. "I shall hold you responsible if anything is to befall my son." With that, he marched off.

There was a few seconds of awkward silence, before Hermione decided to introduce the Weasleys to her parents, who had apparently been stood just inside Gringotts the whole time (and hopefully had missed the exchange between their families). Mr Weasley was soon distracted by the Grangers and their muggle money. Mrs Weasley had to all but drag him away when the goblin started to lead them to their vault. Draco didn't need to visit Gringotts, so he waited with Hermione and her family, letting Hermione go on about her holiday reading and her progress on the summer homework. Apparently she had taken his good exam results as a sign that he was academically inclined, despite the lack of effort he'd been trying to put in last year. Thank Merlin he'd only beaten her in a couple of subjects; otherwise he'd probably have never heard the end of it. If she thought she was going to get him to study more with her this year, she was sadly mistaken.

When Harry and the Weasleys returned, Ron and Harry came over to join them, and the rest separated off (with Mr Weasley commandeering Hermione's parents and taking them off to the Leaky Cauldron to interrogate them further about all things muggle). The four of them got ice creams (Harry tried to insist on paying, but Draco overruled him and bought them himself), then wandered around, looking in all the shops. Draco engaged Harry and Ron in a discussion of which broomstick he should get, until Hermione lost her patience and dragged them off to go buy ink and parchment instead.

When their hour was done, they headed to Flourish and Blotts. The place was chaos. Lockhart was doing a signing. _Fuck_. If Draco had remembered, he would have suggested they meet somewhere else. He'd like to avoid the poncy bugger if at all possible. But they did need to get their schoolbooks (most of them being the fucker's wafflings) so they couldn't avoid the place, as much as he would like to.

Hermione seemed ridiculously excited to meet Lockhart. Draco really wanted to tell her to get a grip. He tried to steer the group away from the line for book signings, until he realised the rest of the Weasleys and the Grangers were already in the line, at which point he gave up and they went to join them. A photographer barged into Ron, and the following grumbling ended up bringing the group to Lockhart's attention. Or more accurately, brought Harry to Lockhart's attention. The man all but pounced on him, dragging the bewildered boy to the front for photos. In his original life, Draco might have made fun of Harry for being an attention-seeker, but here he could see Harry clearly wasn't enjoying it. He might have cursed Lockhart on his friend's behalf, if he wasn't concerned about getting caught doing under-age magic.

Lockhart made a dramatic announcement about being the new Defence Professor, which seemed to surprise everyone but Draco (obviously). Harry eventually managed to extract himself, and dumped the books Lockhart had gifted him into the Weasley girl's cauldron. The way she blushed indicated the girl was into him, even back then. _Was that weird? It kind of seems weird._

It was at that point Draco's father sauntered over. Draco suddenly remembered the fight between his father and Ron's the first time round. Hopefully there wouldn't be a repeat…

"Father, did you get all your business done? Are you wanting to leave?" he asked. He knew it might appear a bit rude if they make a quick exit, but it would be better than a fight. His father had another glaring war with Mr Weasley, and all but walked into Ron's sister, but there was no violence, so Draco took it as a win. He muttered a quick goodbye to his friends as they left, promising to write, and that they'd meet on the Hogwarts Express.


	4. Chapter 4

Draco continued to write to his friends, but didn't see them in person for the rest of the holidays. He went back to Diagon Alley again, this time with his mother; she had complained that his father should have taken Draco to get more robes whilst they were there (true, particularly after he shed one set to make a rope in the Philosopher's Stone debacle), and declared exasperated that if she wanted something done properly, she should do it herself. Draco picked up some owl-order clothes catalogues whilst he was there (thinking he could show them to Harry, and make a start at trying to teach the boy about quality tailoring). He managed to persuade mother to buy him his broomstick (father had kept being vague about precisely when he'd buy one). They also went back to Flourish and Blotts (as Draco hadn't bothered buying his textbooks last time, half thinking of not bothering, which his mother said would not do at all). He did take the chance to pick up some other books that might be useful for one reason or another. _(Oh Merlin, was Hermione rubbing off on him?_ )

Speaking of Hermione, he had a rather awkward reunion with her on platform 9 3/4. He'd been stood with his parents, having just apparated in, when the Grangers came through the barrier. Hermione waved to him, but didn't come over at first, seeing that he was with his parents and picking up that that might not be a good idea. However, her mother saw her waving and started dragging her over towards Draco and his family.

"Hello, you must be Draco, right?" she smiled at him, "Our Hermione's told us a lot about you!"

"Oh, yes, erm… nice to meet you," he replied, holding out a hand to shake, first to her, then to her husband.

"And you must be Mr and Mrs Malfoy!" Draco watched the interaction nervously. His parents couldn't quite keep their displeasure off their faces as they shook the Grangers' hands, but at least they didn't say anything inflammatory.

"Anyhow, we must be off," his mother announced, "Have a good term, Draco, darling." She kissed his forehead and his father patted him on the shoulder, then the pair apparated away.

"Shall we put our things on the train?" he suggested to Hermione. He waited to one side for Hermione to say goodbye to her parents (which took considerably longer than his own parents' departure), then they both went to find an empty carriage and wait for Ron and Harry to arrive. Time went on, and there was still no sign of them. They had a good view out of their window of the platform, so they could hardly have missed them. He knew Ron was never very good at punctuality, but they were going to miss the train at this rate!

Suddenly another flashback hit him. He'd thought about it earlier in the summer, then forgotten it again. Harry and Ron arriving at Hogwarts in a flying car.

"Where you going?" Hermione asked as Draco leapt to his feet. "The train's going to leave soon!"

"There's something I need to check. If I don't make it back in time, I don't know, don't worry." With that, he ran back off the train and down the platform.

With there being so many of them, the Weasleys probably wouldn't be apparating. More than likely they'd get to the platform via the barrier in the muggle station. Draco hadn't tended to use that entrance, so he was slightly apprehensive as he passed through. He almost walked straight into the Weasley family on the other side.

"Draco, what are you doing here?" Ron asked, "Shouldn't you be getting on the train, not leaving!"

"I was looking for you!"

"Boys!" the Weasley matriarch interrupted, "There's not time! Talk on the train!" She started organising the family, sending them through the barrier, until Draco and his friends were the only ones left. The two lined up with their trolleys and set off charging towards the barrier (almost as if they were trying to destroy the thing or something) as Draco followed behind, rolling his eyes. He had to quickly jump out of the way as they suddenly stopped and actually bounced backwards, luggage falling everywhere. Harry's owl started screeching, further drawing attention to them (and they were already gathering a small crowd of gawking muggles).

"What happened!?" he asked them.

"I dunno. The gateway's sealed itself!" Ron replied. Draco tried it and sure enough, he couldn't get through either. Harry cautiously wheeled his trolley up to the barrier and pushed with all his might, as if he thought he could defeat it by brute force. He couldn't.

"It's gone," Ron muttered, stunned. "The train's left. What if Mum and Dad can't get back through to us? Do either of you have any muggle money?" Draco just raised an eyebrow. Harry gave a hollow laugh.

"The Dursleys haven't me pocket money for about six years." _I wonder what happened six years ago? If this summer is anything to go by, it seems Harry doesn't get on all that well with his relatives._ "I think we'd better go and wait by the car. We're attracting too much atten-"

"Harry! The car!" Ron exclaimed, eyes gleaming.

**_Aw, hell no!!!_ **

"No, Ron, we are not flying to Hogwarts in your parents' car!"

"How did you know that was what I was going to say? But why not!?"

"Because it'll probably end with us being expelled, that's why!" ( _Well, no it won't. Dumbledore will never expel his precious Chosen One, but they don't know that)_.

"Well, what are we going to do? We're stuck, right? We've got to get to school somehow!"

"Yes, and we have hours. The Hogwarts Express is a ridiculously slow method of transport. We could walk to Diagon Alley and floo from there to Hogsmeade, then walk to the school, and we'll still arrive hours earlier than everyone else. How about we wait for a few minutes at least before doing anything rash. Your parents will have to leave the platform and come back this way for the car. If the barrier doesn't reopen soon, people will realise something's up."

"What if they decide to apparate straight to the car?"

"That's a point…" Draco paused to think. "Why don't you two go wait by the car. Take Hedwig with you, she's attracting the most attention. I'll wait here, and if anyone comes through, I'll let them know what happened."

Sure enough, Ron and Harry had only just left when parents started flooding through the barrier. Draco was just wondering who to try and get the attention of when he spotted Ron's parents.

"Mr and Mrs Weasley!" he called out. They looked surprised to see him at first, then suspicious.

"Draco. Why aren't you on the train?" Mr Weasley asked.

"The barrier wouldn't let us through! Ron and Harry went to wait by your car in case you went straight there."

"Oh no!" Mrs Weasley exclaimed. "What are we going to do!?"

"Do you have a way of getting in touch with the school? I'm sure there's lots of ways we could get there if we take a minute to think."

The Weasleys didn’t seem like they had any insights. _Why are all adults so useless?_ They ended up wandering out to the carpark to find Harry and Ron. Draco had never really spent much time in carparks. He wasn't sure if he liked them, particularly after he nearly got hit by a car.

Since no one had a better idea, it was decided the Weasleys would drive them to Diagon Alley so they could floo to Hogsmeade. Draco hadn't travelled by car before. It was weird, and terribly inefficient _(I thought the Hogwarts Express was slow…_ ) _._ They spent what seemed like hours in a traffic jam. _How do muggles put up with this?_ Mr Weasley had to go into work soon (having taken the morning off), so he dropped them off and left them outside the Leaky Cauldron. Between them, Draco, Harry, Ron and Ron's mother managed to get Ron and Harry's luggage through the floo to The Three Broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta gave them a weird look, but didn't stop them. As they got out into the street, they realised it was a long walk up to the school, particularly carrying two trunks.

"Can't you shrink the trunks?" Draco asked Mrs Weasley. That's what a lot of people seemed to do.

"It's not good for the trunk, unless it has charms built in to it," was her excuse. _Really?_

"Well, it's going to take forever carrying them. Why don't we send a letter to the school with Hedwig. The teachers will already be there. It shouldn't take long."

They had to open Ron's trunk to get at parchment, quill and ink (because unlike Hermione, none of them were in the habit of carrying it on their person). Mrs Weasley wrote a letter and addressed it to Dumbledore (after some debate who to actually send it to). A short while later, a House Elf appeared in front of them. Harry seemed to flinch slightly.

"Hello. I be Pip. Professor Dumbledore Sir sent me. I be taking luggage back to Hogwarts. If Madam and Sirs could walk to gates of Hogwarts, someone will come to meet Sirs." With that, the elf disapparated, taking the trunks (and Hedwig's now empty cage) with it.

When they eventually got to the gates, they found them to be locked. Draco could sense his companions beginning to worry when he spotted a figure striding down from the castle towards them. He'd recognise those sweeping dark robes anywhere. Snape. _Well, this was going to be fun…_

"So, Mr Potter. You and your friends for you were too good to get the train, did you? Or did you expect it to wait for you, only to discover the world doesn't revolve around you?"

"There was a problem with the barrier at the station," Mrs Weasley answered, sounding quite defensive on Harry's behalf. "Someone needs to investigate it. Anything could have happened!"

"Hmm," Snape hummed, not sounding like he really believed her, or cared. "Well, I don't have all day. I have better things to do than collecting wayward students." He tapped the gates with his wand, and they opened. "Come." With that, he started marching back towards the school, not even giving Mrs Weasley any form of parting acknowledgement. They quickly said goodbye and thank you to her, Ron and Harry accepting hugs, embarrassed (Draco kept his distance enough that she couldn't have hugged him if she wanted to, which she probably didn't), then dashed after Snape.

At the entrance hall, Snape left them after some choice words about staying out of trouble and vague threats of retribution. They looked to each other, as if to say 'what do we do now?'

"I wonder if lunch is on?" Ron asked. "I mean, the teachers have to eat, don't they?"

"They might have already eaten," Harry suggested.

"Why don't we just go down to the kitchens and get food straight from the elves?" Draco suggested.

"You know where the kitchens are?"

"Yeah, come on, I'll show you."

The elves were thrilled to see them, immediately offering them all kinds of treats. Ron's eyes seemed to be bugging out of his head. Harry looked slightly more wary. Clearly his interactions with Dobby had made him a bit distrustful of elves. But all three of them had a rather delicious lunch. Draco had to remind them not to fill themselves up to much, with the Welcome Feast being that evening.

Afterwards, they sat out by the lake, enjoying the last of the summer sun and letting their lunch settle, before going to grab their brooms (Ron borrowing one of the school brooms) and had a fly around the quidditch pitch. He managed to persuade Ron to throw around leaves Draco had transfigured into balls, so he and Harry could race to catch them and pretend they were snitches. It was a pretty close battle; both were excited about the prospect of facing each other on the quidditch pitch, provided Draco managed to secure the Slytherin seeker position.

Eventually they went back to go get changed and ready for the feast. They were still the first ones in the Great Hall, so Draco sat with Ron and Harry at the Gryffindor table until the other students arrived.


	5. Chapter 5

Draco was just heading over to the Slytherin table when he saw Hermione charging towards them. She looked a combination of worried and murderous. For a second, he thought she was going to hit him (a rather terrifying prospect; her slaps hurt!)

"Where have you three been!? I've been worried! You two weren't on the train, then _you_ ran off without saying anything, and didn't come back! What happened!? Why weren't you on the train!? How did you get here!?"

"There was a problem with the barrier, so we had to make other arrangements," he told her before making a strategic retreat. Harry and Ron could field the rest of her questions.

He ended up having an interrogation of his own when he got to the Slytherin table. He wasn't sure how everyone seemed to know he hadn't been on the train; it's not like they'd have missed him particularly. He decided to be quite minimalist with details, to make them more interested by giving the impression it was actually a story worth hiding. He might be able to eke out another favour.

He checked the Daily Prophet the next morning (having decided it would be smart to take out his own subscription this year, particularly when he wanted to keep up with what happened in the Pettigrew and Black trials, which were supposedly starting any day now). He knew there shouldn't be any mention of flying cars but just wanted to check that fate hadn't somehow fucked him over. Today he was lucky; it hadn't.

One thing was perhaps less lucky, was a letter he'd received from his parents. They had somehow heard about his adventures yesterday, and wanted an explanation. Mother would never put it in so many words, but she sounded concerned. He'd have to draft a reassurance later.

They got their class timetables; again the only class he had with the Gryffindors was potions. _Why they always put Gryffindor and Slytherin together for potions is anyone's guess. It's quite frankly miraculous there wasn't any fatalities in that class first time round_ (hopefully a feat that would be repeated).

His first classes went well (although they were pretty easy). At lunchtime he walked in on Harry being mobbed by Creevey ( _he'd almost forgotten about him and his obsession with Harry_ ).

" _Signed photos_? You're giving out _signed photos_ , Potter? Everyone queue up!"

"No, I'm not. Shut up, Malfoy!"

"You're just jealous!" Creevey piped up, clearly having not picked up on the sarcasm in their voices.

"Yeah, Draco," Ron smirked, "Stop being jealous! Harry, I'll take a signed photo!"

"What's all this, what's all this?" Lockhart asked, striding in, ridiculous turquoise robes swirling. "Who's giving out signed photos?" You could see the moment Lockhart spotted Harry. His face lit up in a massive grin, and he made a grab for Harry, putting an arm around his shoulders. "Shouldn't have asked! We meet again, Harry! Come on then, Mr Creevey. A double portrait, can't say fairer than that, and we'll _both_ sign it for you." Draco felt a bit bad that he'd kind of dropped his friend in it (he had faint feelings of déjà vu; _I think something similar happened last time around_ ), but apart from cursing the Professor, he wasn't sure what to do. As much as he'd enjoy cursing the flouncy dickhead, he'd better not. So instead, he made a strategic exit before he did curse Lockhart (or before Harry decided to curse _him_ in revenge).

"You bastard," was Harry's first remark on entering the Room of Requirement that evening. "Thanks to you I got yet another monologue from Lockhart about fame!"

"Well, you shouldn't have been handing out signed photos then, should you?"

"I wasn't!"

"Harry, you should listen to Professor Lockhart! I'm sure he has lots of useful knowledge to impart!" Hermione implored.

"Hermione, Lockhart is a fake and an idiot. You should accept that sooner rather than later."

"How would you know? You haven’t even had his class yet!"

"And how did your first class go with him?"

"It was great!"

"It was awful!" Ron interceded, "Hermione, you can't think that was a good class!"

"He set us a ridiculous quiz about trash like his favourite colour, then set a load of pixies loose and made a run for it!" Harry added. Draco had almost forgotten about that over the intervening years since he last had that class. He was not looking forward to reliving it tomorrow.

The class was almost as bad as he expected. Lockhart had apparently learnt something from his lesson with the Gryffindors; he had decided that the pixies were safer in their cage, and that the class should just look at them. Unfortunately, the cage ended up opened somehow anyway (he wouldn't have put it past any of his fellow Slytherins, but didn't actually see who, if anyone, was responsible).

The other classes continued to go well. After one Transfiguration class, Draco found himself cornered by Nott.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"How did you do that so quickly?"

"Do what?"

"You know what. In class."

"I don’t know. I guess I got lucky."

"Don't give me that. I saw your grades from last year. You never seem to even try, and yet you're one of the top in the year."

"What can I say? I guess I'm naturally gifted."

"Can you help me?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

"You're asking for a favour?" Nott made a disapproving sniff. Draco raised an eyebrow in reply.

"Okay, fine yes, I'm asking for a favour. Study with us, and maybe I'll help you with something sometime."

"Okay, sure. I suppose I can find some time in my schedule. But I’ll be holding you to that."

Well, that was unexpected and convenient. His vague plan to improve his relationship with his fellow Slytherins was starting well.

Pettigrew's trial started. There was surprisingly little talk of it around the school. Apparently the vast majority of the school population didn't bother keeping up with current affairs. Draco discussed the articles in the Daily Prophet with his friends each day at their Room and Requirement hangouts.

They had their first potions class of the year. The Slytherins arrived before the Gryffindors, meaning Snape was already in a mood with the Gryffindors before they'd even got there. Draco took the same seat as last year and waited for his friends to turn up. He was thinking that Hermione would join them at the table this year, but Longbottom took the seat next to Draco again before she had the chance. Never mind. He had the feeling he and Hermione would have ended up bickering anyway (they had rather different approaches to potions), and it meant he could try and prevent Longbottom from causing any disasters again. Any chance of the relationship between his friends and Snape being improved now they knew Snape hadn't been trying to kill Harry last year was quickly negated by Snape's venom towards them.

Draco went to the Slytherin quidditch try-outs and got the seeker position quite easily. To be fair, the competition was pretty pathetic. It did lead to an awkward interaction with the Gryffindor team on Saturday morning. Apparently Wood had originally booked the pitch for Gryffindor, but Flint had acquired a note from Snape saying they could have the pitch. It led to a lot of bickering, but eventually both teams reluctantly agreed to share the pitch this one time. A memory of Ron trying to curse him and ending up making himself vomit slugs came into Draco's mind. This time, everyone remained uncursed (although multiple people took rather hard whacks with the bludger).

Afterwards, Draco joined Harry, Ron and Hermione in visiting Hagrid. Draco was glad to hear Hagrid didn't think much of Lockhart either (a rare occurrence of good judgement from the man). He started telling them about the curse on the Defence Against the Dark Arts post. Clearly Hagrid was on a roll with factual information today. He even made a joke about Harry's signed photos, which Draco found hilarious.

On the way out, they stopped to admire Hagrid's giant pumpkins. He let slip he'd been helping them along with illegal engorgement charms. _Ah, that sounds more like the liability we all know_.


	6. Chapter 6

The subsequent quidditch practices went by without any further scheduling conflicts. However, the weather was starting to make him regret joining the team. He ended up soaked and coated in mud with increasing frequency. At least he'd not found himself on the wrong end of a Filch lecture, which Harry was complaining about at one of their meet-ups. Apparently, in the process, he'd managed to find proof in Filch's office that the man was indeed a squib (Draco had heard rumours for years, but it was interesting to hear it confirmed).

Harry had somehow also managed to get himself invited to Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday party (a feat Draco would have been surprised about if it was anyone other than Harry). Draco decided to tag along too, partly out of pure curiosity, but also because he felt that if the three Gryffindors went without him, it would inevitably end up in chaos (whereas with him there, it only _might_ end up in chaos). He hoped the ghost wouldn't mind his presence (he was the Gryffindor House ghost after all).

On the day itself, it seemed the Gryffindors were starting to have second thoughts about going, wanting to attend the Halloween feast instead. _There wasn't much of a feast last year I suppose, with the troll and everything…_ But Hermione reminded Harry that he'd told Nearly Headless Nick he'd go, and not wanting to disrespect the dead, off they went. Draco had experienced many weird things throughout his life, but nothing like this. The party playlist sounded more like fingernails on a blackboard, the decoration was jet black candles, and the catering was rotten food.

There was a large population of ghosts present, which drew Draco onto the morbid chain of thought of wondering whether Hogwarts acquired a good deal more ghosts after the Battle. He'd not had chance to find out before he'd gone back. He was thrown back into the present by the Bloody Baron hovering in front of him, awaiting acknowledgement. All the other ghosts seemed to be giving the spectre a wide birth, but Draco did not want to end up on the wrong side of his House ghost.

"Oh no," Hermione muttered, "Turn back, turn back, I don't want to talk to Moaning Myrtle-"

"She's not so bad," Draco countered, "As long as you just let her mope on." He wouldn't say he liked the ghost, but she'd been something approaching a listening ear in sixth year, when he'd wanted someone to complain to about having to follow the Dark Lord's plans, or face death.

"Who's Moaning Myrtle?" Harry asked.

"She haunts the girls' toilets on the first floor," Hermione answered.

"She haunts a _toilet_?"

"Hang on a minute," Ron interjected, "Draco, how do you know her if she haunts a _girls_ toilet?"

"She has been known to leave her toilet. Case in point." He gestured to her ghostly form. _Though, this might actually be the first time I've met her outside her toilet…_

Myrtle spotted Draco's gesturing towards her, and mistook it for an insult on her part. There was a considerable amount of shouting and crying (egged on by Peeves, undoing any attempts they made to calm her down) before she fled from the dungeon.

The next piece of drama came from the arrival of the Headless Hunt. There was a considerable degree of arguing between its leader and the deathday boy, Nick. Eventually Ron and Harry decided they'd had enough and suggested the four of them get out of there. Draco had to admit the novelty was rather wearing off.

Just when Draco was metaphorically patting himself on the back for a peril-free evening, Harry announced he could hear a murderous voice none of the rest of them could hear. _Of course._

He ran chasing after it, and Draco figured he had no choice but to follow.

"It's going to kill someone!" Harry yelled. _This keeps getting worse and worse._ It wasn't until they'd ran all the way to the second floor that Harry paused. Draco was going to try and catch his breath and ask what this was all about, when Hermione gasped and pointed.

THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE.

_Fuck._

It was almost exactly the same scene as last time, complete with petrified Mrs Norris. Ron was wisely advising they make their getaway, but Draco knew it was too late. Sure enough, next second the hallway was flooded with students, having come from the feast. Filch arrived and started accusing Harry, Dumbledore came and started taking charge, and Lockhart, the slimy git, offered up his office. It was fairly cramped once Dumbledore, Snape, McGonagall, Lockhart, Filch, Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione had all filtered in. Lockhart starting chatting shit, when it was clear he didn't have the first clue what was going on, Dumbledore announced that the mangy feline was only petrified (surprising everyone but Draco, although Lockhart backtracked and pretended to have known all along), and Filch returned to his insistence Harry was the culprit.

"He did it, he did it! You saw what he wrote on the wall! He found- in my office- he knows I'm a- I'm a- I'm a squib!" _Aha, confirmation of the squib theory from his own mouth now!_ Snape joined in the Harry blaming, using words that never directly accused Harry, but everyone could tell what he was implying. They tried to explain about the Deathday party, but Snape, quite logically, questioned why they hadn't gone to the feast afterwards, and why they'd ended up on that corridor. Harry clearly didn't want to admitting hearing voices, so instead did some Gryffindor-level lying (i.e. was very unconvincing). Since they were already digging the hole, Draco elected to remain quiet and hope the teachers forgot he was there to be honest. Snape tried to argue for Harry to be banned from quidditch, which drew McGonagall into the argument. It was all a bit of a shit-show frankly.

One thing Draco did realise, was that he should have thought to order some Mandrake Restorative Draught ages ago. It was pretty difficult to procure, and it was going to takes months for Sprout's mandrakes to be ready (almost until the end of the school year, if Draco remembered correctly). He really needed to learn to think further in advance. _Was there any other potion or ingredients I should order now?_ He had a think, but couldn't come up with any at this point. He'd make a note on his to-do list about it.

Once they were dismissed, Draco and his friends secluded themselves in a nearby empty classroom to discuss what just happened. They were all rather baffled by the voice only Harry could hear. Draco didn't recall Harry hearing voices at this point in the timeline last time. Maybe he managed to actually keep something quite for once. There was the weird psychic conversations with the Dark Lord or something that happened later, that was connected to his scar somehow, but that wasn't until after the Dark Lord had regained his body. That can't be what this was, right? What did Voldemort have to do with this anyway?

Draco started telling them a bit of what he knew about the Chamber of Secrets ("It was supposedly made by Salazar Slytherin to hold his secret monster… Apparently it was opened once a few decades ago…"). He didn't want to sound too knowledgeable about it; hopefully his friends wouldn't think he was the Heir, but it was a good idea to be cautious anyway.

The whole school was talking about the incident. A couple of older Slytherins even asked Draco if he was the Heir, with him being one of the people found at the scene of the crime, but as he pointed out, he was friends with a muggleborn, as well as the fucking Boy-Who-Lived, so it was hardly likely to be him. They seemed to accept that. Hermione apparently tried asking Binns about it, and surprisingly actually got an answer out of him (but didn't learn much more than Draco had already told her). She also went off on a rant about how the library had run out of copies of 'Hogwarts a History' (and her own copy had been displaced from her trunk by all Lockhart's books; apparently she wasn't familiar with expanded trunks). Draco lent her his copy (which he'd picked up in his binge at Flourish and Blotts) to shut her up.

Vague suspicions on Harry being the Heir had already begun, to Draco's surprise. He would have thought it was the whole Parselmouth incident that started it all (but maybe that just fanned the already existent flames). It said something about their society when more people suspected the Boy-Who-Lived than the Malfoy heir (who was actually in Slytherin). No wonder it took the idiots so long to believe the Dark Lord was back. _This is probably going to be a problem for me in the future…_

They managed to sneak back to the corridor on a rare occasion Filch wasn't guarding it.

"Can't hurt to have a poke around," Harry commented, getting straight on his hands and knees to crawl around (much to Draco's disgust). Draco thought that statement was almost certainly false, but his friends were insistent, so he went along with it. They found some scorch marks and some fleeing spiders (leading to Ron revealing a spider phobia; knowledge the old Draco would have had a field-day with). Harry pointed out there had been water around before, which they realised had come from Myrtle's bathroom. After ignoring some protests from Ron ("it's a _girls_ bathroom!") they went inside. Hermione tried to interrogate Myrtle, but all they achieved was pissing the ghost off. They concluded the bathroom trip with an argument between Ron and his brother Percy, who was positively shocked to find his brother in a _girls_ bathroom. Draco had to bite the inside of his mouth to stop himself from bursting out laughing at the exchange.

Saturday brought the annual Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch match. Harry and Draco exchanged some casual banter on their way down to the stadium. Draco had been wondering before the match what seeker technique to go with; should he stay away from Harry, both flying around doing their own thing, and hope he was on the right side of the pitch when the snitch was spotted, or stick close, trusting his slightly faster broom to get him to the snitch first? He went with the second. It meant he and Harry could exchange some light-hearted teasing and try out a few seeker manoeuvres (it appeared at this age, Harry wasn't brave/foolish enough to try a Wronski feint yet). They both had to dodge around a bludger a couple of times. _I wonder why the beaters are bothering us this early on?_ _It's not like the snitch is anywhere to be seen. They'd be better off focusing on the chasers._ However, it didn't take him long to notice that it wasn't the beaters targeting them; it was the bludger itself. Every time a beater hit it away, it swerved back towards them again. _Ah shit. This is another 'Harry Potter mortal-peril quidditch incident' isn't it?_ They'd been so many over the years, Draco had forgotten when each one occurred.

One of the Weasley twins managed to get their captain to call a time-out. _That seems ridiculously sensible for a Gryffindor._ To offset it, Harry made a horrendous suggestion; not only that they carry on, but that the Weasleys go back to protecting the rest of the Gryffindor team, and leave Harry to deal with the rogue bludger. His team tried to protest.

"If we stop now, we'll have to forfeit the match!" Harry exclaimed.

"Not if the Slytherin team agrees to pause it until that bludger's dealt with!" Draco argued.

"But they won't! Come on Draco, I know they're your team, but that's not going to happen. Everyone's noticed that the bludger was aiming for me, not you. They'll just tell you to fly further away from me, and get the snitch."

"Harry, don't be an idiot! That thing could take your head off!"

Madam Hooch joined them and asked if they were ready to resume play. Harry gave a determined yes, and his captain reluctantly agreed. Draco wanted to strange Harry, if the bludger didn't kill him first. _This is ridiculous!_ Draco flew slightly further away from Harry, in order to avoid being hit by the bludger, and give them both room for evasive manoeuvres, but wasn't going to leave his friend all alone up there with a murderous piece of sporting equipment after his blood.

Eventually, seemingly out of nowhere, the gleaming form of the snitch appeared. They were both a fair distance from it, but Harry was nearer. They banked and flew in pursuit, having to dodge round the bludger, which was continuing its persistent stalking of its prey. The snitch dived, and they followed after it. Draco held out a hand to grab it, but Harry was quicker. His fist tightened round the glowing orb before Draco's had the chance. He held it aloft, beaming. Draco was distracted from his frustration by the sight of the bludger careering towards them. Harry appeared oblivious, too focused on his victory. Draco dived off his broom towards Harry, pushing him towards the ground (luckily they were only a couple of metres up now). He felt a sharp tap to the back of his head, then all he knew was darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a few different ideas about how the quidditch match would go, but I went with this one.


	7. Chapter 7

Awareness returned to Draco, and he found himself in the Hospital Wing. He lifted a hand, finding a bandage wrapped around his aching head. He groaned.

"How you feeling?" asked Harry, from the next bed along. Draco managed to sit himself up slightly, helped by Ron and Hermione, who came over from where they were sat at Harry's bedside. He could see Harry's arm was in a sling.

"Eh, I've been better. How long have I been out?"

"Oh, 'bout half an hour. Well, since the second time you passed out."

"Second time?"

"Do you not remember that? You came round briefly whilst we were still lying on the pitch, but you just cursed Lockhart then passed out again."

"I cursed Lockhart?"

"Yeah, it was hilarious mate!" Ron interjected. "He wasn't expecting that!"

"Ron!" Hermione admonished.

"Hermione, if Draco hadn't cursed him, I bet Lockhart would have vanished my arm or something," Harry rebuked. "He wasn't taking 'leave me alone' for an answer." Draco took a second to think through that. His head was still feeling a bit fuzzy. But he seemed to remember that Harry wasn't too far off the mark. _Didn't he vanish all the bones from Harry's arm?_

"Don't worry, I'm sure you won't get in trouble for it," Ron reassured, having apparently taken Draco's concentration for worry. "You'd just been hit in the head by a rogue bludger after all. Plus, Snape was smirking with a ferocity he usually saves for when he's torturing Harry, so I'm sure he'll vouch for you if it comes down to it."

At this point Madam Pomfrey bustled in, insisted her patients needed rest, and chased Ron and Hermione out of there.

That night, Draco was awoken by the sound of quiet shouting. He nearly sat up and reached for his wand, when he heard Harry mutter "Dobby?" Draco laid still and listened.

"Harry Potter came back to school," the familiar voice was squeaking. "Dobby warned and warned Harry Potter. Ah sir, why didn't you heed Dobby? Why didn't Harry Potter go back home when he missed the train?"

"What're you doing here?" Harry whispered, "And how did you know I missed the train?" Draco couldn't see Dobby's face, but it must have revealed something, judging by how Harry gasped. "It was _you_! _You_ stopped the barrier letting us through!" _That little bastard…_

"Indeed yes, sir. Dobby hid and watched for Harry Potter and sealed the gateway and Dobby had to iron his hands afterwards, but Dobby didn’t care, sir, for he thought Harry Potter was safe, and _never_ did Dobby dream that Harry Potter would get to school another way!" For an elf who was very inventive when it came to coming up with batshit crazy plans, he apparently had very little imagination.

"Dobby, why are you doing this!?" Draco asked, suddenly sitting up, startling both the elf and Harry. Dobby opened his mouth, squeaked, and disapparated. _Well, that was weird._ Dobby was an absolutely shit elf, but he didn't usually outright ignore questions. He should obey Draco's commands (unless they contradicted his father's). Harry and Draco starred at each other in silence for a few seconds.

"Harry, I'm so sorry. I knew Dobby was crazy, particularly after all that bullshit over the summer, but I never thought he'd do something like this!"

"Draco, it's alright. It's not your fault!"

"But he's my elf, and he has some weird obsession with you, and now you're in the Hospital Wing!"

"So are you! I just have a broken wrist, you nearly had a broken skull!" Draco was going to protest again, when they heard someone coming. The two of them lay down and faked sleep. They listened as Dumbledore and McGonagall brought in a petrified Colin Creevey. Seemed like the Heir was after the same victims as last time. Dumbledore confirmed he knew about the Chamber of Secrets. _So he was complacent, not naïve then._ McGonagall asked who the Heir was. Draco listened with baited breath.

"The question is not _who_ ," Draco replied, "the question is _how_." _Well, that wasn't ominous at all…_

They were both let out of the hospital wing bright and early the next morning. Harry probably hadn't needed to stay overnight at all, he only had a broken wrist. _He probably stayed to keep me company. Well, that's… nice._ It was pretty quiet as they headed to breakfast (most people were probably still in bed). Draco seemed to be getting a mixed reaction from his fellow Slytherin's after yesterday (both at breakfast, and later when he returned to the common room). They were annoyed he didn't manage to catch the snitch, and hence Slytherin has lost (though he'd given it a good shot). But then they were sympathetic he got injured. But he did get injured trying to protect a Gryffindor. But he managed to curse a teacher whilst basically unconscious, which was kind of badass. It was all rather complicated.

At first, surprisingly few people seemed to have heard about Creevey being petrified, but by Monday, it was all around the school. It was all anyone seemed to be talking about. Draco could kind of understand, except for the fact Monday afternoon brought the news that Pettigrew had apparently cracked, and admitted to working for Voldemort. Draco's parents had written to him straight away, wanting to make sure he was kept informed. He realised he'd have to break the news to Harry when they all got to the Room of Requirement. It wouldn't be an easy conversation, telling him that Pettigrew had indeed betrayed his parents to Voldemort.

Draco wasn't sure if he did a good job, but felt he covered the topic more sensitively than the Daily Prophet the next morning, which was having a field day. It was now of the opinion that Sirius Black was an innocent victim of a massive miscarriage of justice, and coming up with varyingly ludicrous conspiracy theories about what went on. Draco read them with interest, musing on what did actually happen. The verdict still needed to be reached in Pettigrew's trial, but now it was all but inevitable he'd be found guilty. How Black's trial went would be interesting; the media was currently on his side, but the confession of Pettigrew didn't guarantee Black would be acquitted of all his supposed crimes (the exact details of which Draco wasn't sure of). Presumably there must have been some evidence that lead to his original conviction?

Sure enough, a few days later Draco received confirmation that Pettigrew had been found guilty, and sentenced to life in Azkaban. He wasn't at all surprised. One thing he was surprised about was that his parents suggested he might like to spend Christmas at Hogwarts; apparently mother was "redecorating the whole house", but that was an excuse that stunk of hippogriff-shit. He recalled that this happened last time too, and he never found out the reason (but last time he never really thought about it). He'd have to do a better job at finding out why this time. Ron and Hermione decided they'd stay over Christmas too, as well as Harry (who'd never planned on going 'home' anyway).

There was a lot to keep in mind; whatever his parents were up to, Black's trial, the Heir of Slytherin. It was a good job Draco didn't actually have to try hard on his school work. He was still doing a study group with some of the other Slytherins, as well as constantly being pestered to study by Hermione. Time was moving forward and the term was almost over. But not before Lockhart could decide to organise a Duelling Club. Draco's friends were pretty excited (he couldn't bring himself to disappoint them by telling them it was Lockhart running it). He wasn't. Last time it was a shit-show.

The beginning went the same. Snape rather marvellously humiliated Lockhart with an 'Expelliarmus'. Bulstrode ended up putting Hermione in a headlock. Harry and Draco duelled, not sticking to disarming, the difference being this time it was good-natured, and both students were smiling by the end of it (albeit whilst gasping for breath, with Harry's legs jerking around the room- Draco could have thrashed him, but instead tried to stick with vaguely age-appropriate spells).

A few students were worse-for-wear, but the session hadn't reached complete-disaster territory when Snape volunteered Draco and Harry for a demonstration. Lockhart didn't look best pleased; it appeared he hadn't forgiven Draco for cursing him. Maybe that's why Snape still selected Draco, even when Harry and him weren't enemies but friends.

"Now, I don't want to see you going easy on him," Snape whispered. "Let's see if you can be a proper Slytherin for once? How about you give 'serpensortia' a go?"

There were a lot of thoughts flying through Draco's head as Lockhart started his countdown. Clearly he couldn't summon a snake. That was how everyone found out Harry was a Parselmouth. But Snape would get annoyed at him if he didn't use his suggested spell. _Could he mess it up maybe? Use a similar spell? Why this spell anyway? Was it just to fit with the Slytherin stereotype, or something more? Wait, did Snape know Harry was a Parselmouth? Was that why he suggested that spell?_ Draco thought back. He seemed to recall Snape seemed as surprised as any of them (but Snape was a good enough of a liar to deceive the Dark Lord, so who the hell knows?) He pictured himself duelling Harry back then, and all the times they ended up fighting in the original timeline. It was a lot.

"…one- go!" shouted Lockhart.

"Sectumsempra!" yelled Draco.

_**Oh fuck** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm doing two cliffhangers in a row... fight me.
> 
> The idea for this final scene was actually one of the first I came up with, when the series was just a concept in my mind. I'm not sure why, but I've been really looking forward to writing it, so if you don't like it then well... ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	8. Chapter 8

_FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK. FUCK._

_SHIT. BALLS. CRAP. DAMN. CUNT. HELL. BOLLOCKS. BLOODY HELL. MERLIN. HECK. PIGS._

_What have I done!? Have I just maybe killed the bloody Boy-Who-Lived, in front of about a million fucking witnesses?_

Everyone was staring in gobsmacked silence, nobody moving a muscle, except Snape who roughly shoved Draco to one side and raced towards Harry, catching him as he fell to the floor. Draco could only stare. Stare at the shock etched into his friend's face. Stare at the violent gash through his robes, stretching from just above his left hip, obliquely across his torso, interrupted for a short distance by where it had diverted to slash across the sleeve of his right wrist, which had been held up as he prepared to cast a spell he never quite got across his lips. Stare as the shredded edges of the dark material seeped blood; how much, it was hard to tell, but almost certainly a lot.

Snape was bent over Harry now, muttering hurried spells across the wounds. It was reminiscent of the scene where Harry and Draco's places were reversed, or would be, if the details weren't fuzzy in Draco's mind. He'd been in a daze then, like he was now.

Snape gathered Harry up into his arms, shooing all the gawking onlookers out of his way. Draco barely heard him telling them to get out, to return to their common rooms. He didn't notice when Snape changed to addressing him.

"DRACO! LISTEN TO ME!" he bellowed, catching his eyes, "Stay here. Talk to no one until I get back." Probably as a second thought, the man cast a silencing spell on Draco before departing. Normally Draco could have undone it easily. But not right now. Right now, the silencing spell was pretty pointless, because Draco doubted he could form a sentence anyway. He sat on the duelling stage in silence. For how long, he couldn't say.

_What have I done!? Why that spell!? Why did I use that spell!?_ The spell must have come into his mind when he was thinking about past times he'd duelled Harry. It did vaguely resemble the spell he'd been trying to avoid using. His subconscious must have put two and two together to make a supreme shit-show. But what was he going to tell Snape? What would everyone think? And Harry. What would Harry think? Would he ever forgive him? Would he decide Draco was the person he thought he was in the original timeline? Had this all been for nothing? Or, even worse, what if Harry couldn't blame him, because there was no Harry left? What if he'd killed Harry Potter, the world's only chance to defeat a psychotic mad-man, obsessed with taking over and destroying their world? What if he'd achieved the one thing the Dark Lord had been so desperate to do, but had never himself managed?

"DRACO! DRACO!" a voice shouted. A hand gripped his shoulder. A hand still damp with blood. He blinked, and found Snape's face filling his vision. "Are you with me?" Draco opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Snape sighed and cancelled his silencing spell.

"Wha… yes…" he muttered.

"Good. Come with me." Snape grabbed him by the arm and led him away. Whether they came across anyone as he stumbled along, Draco didn't know.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Snape demanded, once they were in the privacy of his office, behind his many wards.

"I… I don't…" His mind still felt like soup. "…Harry?" Snape schooled his face into what, for him, was probably a gentle look.

"Mr Potter's in the Hospital Wing. Madam Pomfrey's looking after him. We're hopeful that he should make a full recovery." Draco let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. It felt like someone cast a cleaning spell on his mind. Not a good one. Maybe the kind of one that Crabbe or Goyle would cast. It hadn't reached into the corners. Everything still felt hazy. But clearer than it was a moment ago.

"Draco, what happened? Why didn't you cast the spell I suggested? Where did you learn that spell from?"

"I don't know. I don't know what happened. I guess I panicked. I didn't want to summon a snake. That spell must have been in the back of my mind somewhere. I guess I read it in a book once or something." Snape starred into him with an intensity Draco had never before seen in the man. He felt him battering against his occlumency shields. It took all Draco had to keep them up.

"Why didn't you want to summon a snake?"

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want to do that to my friend. I didn't want to be a Slytherin stereotype."

"So instead you gutted him open?"

"I didn't mean to! Please believe me, I didn't mean for this to happen! I didn't mean to do that!"

There were a few seconds of silence.

"I know."

"You do?"

"I know you didn't mean to do that. I don't know why you used that curse. I don't know where you learnt it from. I don't know what is going on with you, or what you're trying so hard to hide. I don't know who you, Draco Malfoy, are. What you're planning. What that means. But I know you didn't mean to hurt Harry Potter."

"How?"

"Well, I could say that I know you, but that would be a lie. I just admitted that I don't understand you. You're not who I expected you to be. Who, based on all evidence, you should be. So it's not because I know that you care about Mr Potter, though it seems you do, for some bizarre reason. It's because that curse you used, the one that could have torn your friend in two, is dark, dark magic. I don't know if you know, but dark magic, it needs more than just magical talent, and saying the words. You have to feel it. You have to mean it. You have to feed it with anger, deep from the bases of your soul. If you’d done that, Mr Potter wouldn't be alive right now. He'd be a mess of blood and body parts on the floor of the Great Hall. I know you're not lacking in magical talent, no matter how much you try to hide it. You're one of the top students in your year, and you could be so much greater, if you only tried, but you refuse to, for reasons I won't ask of you now. If you meant to, with that spell, you could have easily killed your friend. The fact that he still lives, means you didn't."

They stayed in silence for a few minutes.

"We've established that you didn't mean to do that. But we still have the problem that you did. You nearly killed the Boy-Who-Lived, in front of half the school. Using a dark curse I… using a dark curse, right after I clearly whispered in your ear a suggestion. This isn't something that will just blow over. Particularly not with all the fear and uncertainty in the world currently."

"The Heir."

"That, and other things that are going on outside the school." Snape recognised the look of understanding on Draco's face. "Yes, I thought you'd be one of the few dunderheads in this school bothering to keep up with current affairs. Particularly when you were involved in bringing them about. But the Heir. Let's get back to that. Do you not think people will now be suspicious of you? You are a Slytherin after all. From a family with a long line of students in that House. A family generally associated with pureblood principles. Sure, you might have been bucking the trend on that last one, but now you violently curse someone who is meant to be your friend, the Boy-Who-Lived no less. People will talk, and it won't be kind."

"At least they might stop suspecting Harry." Snape's face turned into a grimace.

"How ridiculously Gryffindor. Or maybe even Hufflepuff!"

"No, I'm still Slytherin. Like you said, Harry's the Boy-Who-Lived. The public face of the fight against the Dark Lord. We both know, a day will come soon, when we need that public face. We'll need the public to get behind him. They can suspect me if they want. Maybe it's better if no one ever knows what I'm about. Knows who I am, and what I'll do. I can be the intrigue. The mysterious threat. The unknown power. I'm never going to be lighter than light, no matter what I do. It wasn't who I was born to be. But maybe Harry can. And as much as I know you'll hate to admit it, maybe we need him to be."

Snape seemed to spend a while sizing Draco up. Eventually he got up, and grabbed a small bottle from one of his cupboards.

"I should have probably offered you this earlier. It's a Calming Draught. Maybe you don't need it anymore. But you'll take it anyway. You'll stay here for now. I need to go check on Potter, and try and get this situation under some sort of control." He waved his wand and transfigured the chair Draco had been sat on into some kind of futon. It still looked fairly stiff and uncomfortable, but it was big enough for Draco to lie down on. Before he left, Snape added one more thing: "We'll discuss your punishment when I return."

Draco had just managed to drop off to sleep on the unforgiving piece of furniture, when he was awoken by the noise of the door closing. He sat up, trying to retain his dignity, and not look to be half in a stupor.

"Sir," he greeted his Head of House. "How's Harry?"

"Capable of being most irritating, so I'm sure he'll be fine." Snape was back to insulting Harry, which was a good sign.

"So what happens now?"

"I've spoken with the Headmaster, and you won't be being expelled, or sent to Azkaban, which I imagine you'll be relieved about. You'll have a week of detentions with me. Since we're this late into the term, we'll wait until the new year for you to serve them."

"Will my parents be told?" Snape gazed at him most curiously. That clearly triggered some kind of question in him.

"No, both myself and the Headmaster have decided that won't be necessary. Whether they'll find out by other means is another question. I'm sure news of such an incident involving the Boy-Who-Lived will get around. Then again, Potter manages to get himself almost killed so frequently now, it's barely a notable occurrence."

"Is that all, Sir?" Draco asked, after Snape didn't say anything else.

"For now, yes, you may go. But rest assured, I'll be keeping my eyes on you. Don't think I won't be."

He stepped out into the dungeons corridor. He was a bit disorientated from his nap, but it was pretty late at night now. After curfew anyway. He wanted to visit Harry, but he wouldn't be let in at this time, even if Harry did want to see him (and that was a big if). He'd have to wait until the morning. He returned to the common room and crept into his dormitory (surprisingly managing to reach his bed without waking any of his dorm-mates). He didn't sleep though, instead lying awake, thinking and worrying.

The next morning, after a disturbed night he dragged himself from his bed, whilst his dorm-mates were still asleep. He quietly got dressed and headed out. When he reached the Hospital Wing, the door was shut. He pressed the doorbell. After a short while Madam Pomfrey peered her head around the door.

"Mr Malfoy." She did not look pleased to see him.

"Madam Pomfrey. Sorry to call so early. But I was hoping to see Harry before classes. If he'll have me, that is." She made a vague noise and shut the door, presumably going to speak with Harry, but perhaps just snubbing him. Just when Draco was starting to wonder if the latter was the case, the door reopened, and she gestured for him to enter.

"Mr Potter is still recovering. If I think you are upsetting my patient, I won't be afraid to ask you to leave."

She led him to Harry's bed. His friend was lying under the covers, but he could see the edges of white bandages peeping out of his pyjamas at the top. He looked pale, but wide awake, partially propped up by pillows. Draco was surprised to see Hermione and Ron were sat at the bedside. They must have gotten up even earlier than him. Ron came towards him, wand out.

"I'm warning you Malfoy, you try anything…" he told him, standing defensively in front of Harry _. Back to second-name basis. That… hurts_. He never would have thought in a million years he'd be upset by the concept of Ron Weasley not being his friend, and yet, here he was.

"I won't. I promise. I just wanted to come to see Harry was alright. To apologise for yesterday."

"Apologise!? You nearly killed him!"

"Ron…" Hermione cautioned.

"No, he's right, I did. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to. I don't know what happened. I didn't mean to use that spell."

"Maybe you just got fed up of pretending? Decided to follow your true nature? Did daddy teach you that spell? Or was it Snape? We all saw him conspiring with you. Did he finally suggest a way for you to finish Harry off for you?" Ron sneered nastily.

"It wasn't Snape," Hermione commented, surprising both of them.

"What? Of course it was Snape! He hates Harry. You saw him, didn't you Harry?"

"Snape said something to Draco, but it wasn't that spell. Did you not see his face. He was surprised as any of us."

"He's a good actor. He got Dumbledore to hire him."

"It wasn't him. We spent most of last year thinking he was trying to kill Harry, and we were wrong. He doesn't like him, not at all, but he's not trying to kill him. He probably saved his life yesterday!"

"Yeah after our so-called ' _friend'_ tried to kill him!"

"Ron!" Harry shouted. They all went quiet. It was the first thing he'd said. "I believe Draco. He's our friend. He wasn't trying to kill me." Draco sighed in relief. "But what the hell were you doing?"

"I'm sorry. I panicked, and somehow dragged that spell out of nowhere."

"But why?"

"Snape told me to cast 'serpensortia'. It's a spell to summon snakes. I didn't want to do it. I guess maybe I thought I should cast something else that sounds similar. Unfortunately my subconscious came up with… well, I won't repeat it, but that."

"Why didn't you want to summon snakes? They're your House animal, right? Surely they don't bother you?" _Well, actually, after Nagini, I'm not overly fond of them._

"It wasn't me I was thinking of. I was thinking of you."

"Me? Why?" _Why? Did Harry not think of the chaos it would bring if a snake was summoned and he spoke to it in front of everyone? Maybe he just thought he wouldn't speak to it? Unless… no… Surely Harry knew he was a parselmouth, right? He must know? Except, in the past, there's been things he really should know that he's had zero clue about before. It wouldn't be unprecedented._

"Because of Voldemort being, you know, a parselmouth."

"What's a parselmouth?" _Holy shit!_

 _"_ A person who can speak to snakes," Ron answered.

"Can't lots of wizards?"

"No! It's a very rare gift. You-Know-Who was the only known one in recent years."

"Oh…" Harry replied, in a tone implying he had something to say, but didn't want to say it. Draco met his eyes and raised an eyebrow. "Well, erm… do you guys promise not to say anything…?"

"Anything about what?" Ron asked.

"Promise?"

"We promise," the three of them agreed, with varying degrees on uncertainty.

"I think I might be a parselmouth…"

"WHAT!?" Ron shouted.

"I think I can talk to snakes."

"How? Why?"

"I accidently set a boa constrictor at the zoo on Dudley once. Long story, but it kind of told me it had never seen Brazil, and I sort of set it free without meaning to." _Oh Merlin._ "It was before I knew I was a wizard."

"So you were a kid? Children think they can speak to animals all the time. You probably didn't really speak to the snake," Ron argued, perhaps trying to persuade himself more than Harry.

"I was ten."

"Still. Draco, can you do that snake summoning spell? We'll test it out, and you'll see you was just imagining it!" _Well, Ron seems to have forgiven me. Or gotten distracted from remembering that he's angry with me anyway._

"I imagine Madam Pomfrey will be wanting my hide if she sees me summoning snakes in her infirmary."

"Oh, I guess. We'll have to try it in the Room of Requirement later."

"I hate to break it to you, but I don't think I'm getting out of here any time soon," Harry commented, gesturing to his hospital bed.

"Oh, yeah," said Ron.

"How you feeling Harry? As I said, I'm really sorry about yesterday. How bad is it?"

"It's not too bad. Not when I don't move anyway. Madam Pomfrey's quite pleased with how it's healing."

"Does she think it'll scar?"

"She's not sure yet. She says we'll have to wait and see."

At this point, Madam Pomfrey came and shooed them out, arguing that they needed to go grab breakfast and get to class. Draco left, feeling better than when he'd arrived. Harry was going to be alright, and it appeared his friends weren't going to disown him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who left comments last chapter! (and those who have left comments in general). I didn't reply to them all because, you know, spoilers, but I really do appreciate them. I hope this chapter isn't a disappointment.
> 
> Fair warning, my rate of writing will probably be slowing down soon, as I have other things coming up, but I'll keep working on this when I can.


	9. Chapter 9

The Great Hall was reasonably empty, because a lot of people had already headed to class, but those who were there all turned to stare at Draco as he entered. _No chance the story hasn't got around then._ He was quite glad he was entering with Hermione and Ron, hoping that the fact the Gryffindors weren't shunning him would show everyone he hadn't just tried to publically murder the Boy-Who-Lived.

"So…?" Zabini asked him as he sat down at the Slytherin table and started trying to stuff breakfast into himself as quickly as possible without looking like a savage (something he could see Ron had declined to care about, if the rate at which the bacon on the Gryffindor table was disappearing was anything to go by). He raised an eyebrow (so he didn't have to open his mouth).

"Don't play coy," Zabini complained, "You know what I'm asking about. What was all that yesterday, with you trying to chiffonade Potter in front of us all? I nearly got blood on me."

"I'm sure your mother could have given you some advice on getting blood out of things."

"Please," Parkinson interrupted, "Countess Zabini would never kill someone so uncouthly that even a single drop of blood was spilled."

"My mother does not kill people."

"Sure she doesn't…"

"We were talking about Draco, and how he tried to kill one of our fellow students yesterday!"

"I didn't try to kill him," Draco protested (trying to keep his voice calm).

"What would you call that, then?"

"A minor duelling accident."

"And I'm a hippogriff. I'd never even heard of that curse before, but it was clearly dark."

"And he knows a lot of dark curses," Parkinson added.

"Maybe I got my spells mixed up a bit. I am only a second year after all. Mistakes happen."

"Sure. So what happens now? I saw you walk in with Ridiculous Gryffindors #2 and #3. Don't tell me they're still friends with you after that?"

"Yes. I went to see Harry this morning, and he accepted my sincere apologies."

"Really? How utterly Gryffindor-ish."

"Even Hufflepuff-ish I'd say," Parkinson chipped in again.

"Not Slytherin, anyway," Zabini agreed.

"You never know, he might have just pretended to accept my apology so he could stab me in the back later."

"I'd pay to see that!" Parkinson smirked.

"Pansy! You wound me!" he sarcastically retorted.

"Just like he will."

"As thrilling as this conversation is," Nott interrupted, "If we don't leave now, we'll be late for class. I'd leave you behind, but Blaise here is meant to be my partner for Charms, and I'll have no one to curse if he doesn't get a move on."

The morning classes started alright. But by mid-morning rumours started circulating that the Heir had new victims; Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick had both been petrified. _I wonder why the Heir seems to be picking the same people as last time? Do they have a grudge against these people? Or is it just convenience or something?_ The Hufflepuffs were shuffling around in nervous groups, clearly extra-skittish now one of their own had been attacked. The looks they were giving Draco, as they edged past, giving him as wide a berth as possible.

"Aw, it's so cute!" Parkinson joked, "They think _you're_ the Heir, and that you're going to go after them too."

"Why don't you reassure them that I was in fact in class all morning, so couldn't have attacked Finch-Fletchley?" Draco asked.

"And where would be the fun in that?"

The new attacks increased the usual exodus from the school for the holidays. There were a few Slytherins around (as they were more confident that the Heir wouldn't dare attack them, than the students in the other three Houses), but apparently Harry, Hermione, Ron and the other Weasleys had Gryffindor tower to themselves. Harry was released from the Hospital Wing a few days into the holidays, but advised by Madam Pomfrey to take things easy; if she heard he'd been running around the school or Merlin forbid, flying around on his broom, she'd have him back in there and tied to his bed for the rest of the Christmas break.

Since they were the only ones there, his friends decided to sneak Draco into the Gryffindor common room. Percy Weasley tried to vehemently protest, waving his Prefect badge around, but Harry managed to look sad and pathetic as he lay on one of the couches, arguing that he couldn't possibly move from there, injured as he was, and was Percy really going to be so cruel as to keep his friend away from his sick bed? Percy muttered something about said friend having put him there in the first place, but reluctantly cleared off to his dorm and left them in peace. Draco was pretty impressed with Harry's manipulation skills then; maybe he was finally learning?

It was Christmas Eve before they decided the coast was clear enough for them to try the snake summoning spell (Percy was in the library, and the terror twins were off probably making chaos somewhere). His friends watched nervously as Draco cast 'serpensortia'. Ron had insisted Draco cast it facing away from them, in case he fucked up and said the wrong spell again. That wasn't going to happen, but Draco figured he couldn't blame them for being nervous.

A small green grass snake appeared in the room (Draco intentionally summoned a nice safe non-venomous snake). He moved out of the way so Harry could have a good view of it from where he was lain on the sofa, but kept his wand pointed at it, just in case. Harry started making a weird hissing noise at the snake, clearly getting its attention as it paused, gazing at him, then started hissing back. To be honest, Draco found the whole thing a bit creepy, having spent too long around the Dark Lord in his previous life (one minute in the nose-less psychopath's company would be too much for anyone). But he tried to keep his face schooled, so that Harry didn't think he was judging him.

After a short while, Draco asked Harry if he should banish the snake again. Harry replied in hisses.

"Yeah, sorry, I don’t speak parseltongue. That was still hisses. Can I maybe get a nod or headshake, if I can't have a reply in English." Harry looked a bit bashful, but nodded his head, and Draco cast the banishing spell on the snake.

"Can you understand me now?" Harry asked.

"Yep, that's English again, mate," Ron replied.

"Good. I was worried for a second I was going to be stuck speaking parseltongue for the rest of my life."

"That would _suck_!"

"Plus, it really wouldn't help with the whole Heir situation," Draco added.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, with Salazar Slytherin being a parselmouth too." _Did they not cover this the other day?_

" _Slytherin_ was a parselmouth!? Was every famous parselmouth evil!?"

"Slytherin wasn't evil. Okay, yes, so this whole 'Heir of Slytherin', 'Chamber of Secrets', 'Slytherin's Monster' situation is kind of, you know, sketchy. Well, very sketchy. But Slytherin himself wasn't evil. Or not all evil, anyway. He did some great things."

"Ollivander told me Voldemort did 'great things' when I bought my wand."

"Okay, well that's… weird. But Ollivander's always been a bit creepy. But that's not what I meant. Slytherin helped found Hogwarts after all, for Merlin's sake. He can't have been all bad."

"He left a monster behind to kill muggleborns, and all those who he thought were 'unworthy'!" Hermione exclaimed.

"It was a thousand years ago! Who knows what he did? Maybe it's just his Heir who's evil?"

"Because of course, he only meant to do good things with his 'monster'?" Ron snarked back.

"He might have left it to protect the school from threats! Real, dangerous, evil threats. Look, I'm not trying to have an argument with you. I'm not trying to justify what the Heir of Slytherin's doing. Of course I'm not. I'm just saying, not every parselmouth is evil."

"Well, of course not every parselmouth is evil!" Hermione exclaimed, as if it was obvious, "Harry's a parselmouth!" Harry smiled, relieved at her, and the tension in the room subsided somewhat.

Draco headed over to the Gryffindor common room bright and early on Christmas morning. He'd always liked to wake early on Christmas, ever since he was a little kid. The tradition had been rather broken through all the… _less pleasant_ years, but he didn't see any reason why he couldn't pick it back up again. He'd already opened his presents from his parents before heading over (and it seemed they'd been extra generous this year, perhaps because of guilt about him not being home for Christmas). He only had to wait a few minutes for Hermione to let him in. She already had her arms full with presents (Draco had put his gifts for his friends in an expandable bag, for easy transport). Rather than heading over to sit by the fire, she led him up the staircase towards the dorms, entering what Draco assumed to be (and in fact was) Harry and Ron's. Both of whom were still asleep, at least until Hermione pulled the curtains open.

"Hermione- you're not supposed to be in here!" Ron complained sleepily, shielding his eyes from the light.

"I'm not supposed to be in this whole tower, and yet here we are," Draco replied. "But since we are here, why don't we exchange gifts?" That seemed to get Ron's interest, if the speed at which he sat up in bed was anything to go by. Hermione perched herself down at the base of Ron's bed. Draco sat down on one of the empty ones (probably Longbottom's, if the plant on the bedside table was anything to go by).

Hedwig flew in, and delivered Harry a toothpick sent by his muggle relatives (maybe Harry got his occasional melodramatic tendencies from them, as there was no feasible reason why they'd have bothered sending such a non-present, except for the drama). Harry seemed a lot more satisfied with the rest of his presents, although he had raised his eyebrows at Draco when the next present he opened was the book Draco had bought him on learning Latin. Draco had to placate him by telling him that that was just one of multiple presents he'd gotten him. He'd been thinking of his list when present shopping, not just with the Latin book, but also when he decided to buy him wand holster (which seemed like a good starting point to getting Harry to take better care of his wand). In fact, he'd decided to buy Ron and Hermione wand-holsters too. It wouldn't hurt (and Ron in particular could also do with some lessons on treating his wand right).

Draco was very surprised to find he was the recipient of his very own Weasley jumper. Draco didn't think Ron's mother liked him very much, but perhaps she'd decided that since he was spending Christmas at Hogwarts with Ron's other friends and siblings, it wouldn't be right to leave him out. It was even in Slytherin colours; green with a silver 'D'. Of course, Draco would have to be very very careful where he wore it and how he hid it, because he could not have his fellow Slytherins knowing of its existence, but he found himself strangely touched nevertheless. As he pulled it over his head, he realised that Mrs Weasley had almost certainly not heard about the incident at Duelling Club. If she had, he would imagine she would have sent him death threats, not knitwear. He took it off whenever he left Gryffindor tower, but he got quite a lot of wear out of it over the course of the holidays. It was surprisingly comfortable.

He'd really hate to admit it, but he might actually miss spending time in Gryffindor. It was definitely warmer than the dungeons, and daylight made a nice change (the little of it they saw, between the short winter days, and the almost constant bad weather). He'd made a start on more things from his list, chatting to Harry a bit about the clothing catalogues he'd picked up in Diagon Alley (not that the boy seemed to have any interest, but he listened politely as Draco went on about different types of robes). He dropped the first mentions of Occlumency (which none of his friends had ever heard about, which by this point, he wasn't even surprised by). Hermione in particular seemed interested, and he lent her a book on the subject, but it didn't seem like the three were in any hurry to learn the skill. At least he'd made some ground work, he supposed.

Hermione also, amongst pestering them to do their homework, tried to get them to read some of the books Draco had bought her for Christmas, in case they had any useful information about the Heir of Slytherin. Draco already knew they didn't; he'd already read his own copies of them (and other, less legal and more likely tomes beside), but she argued he wouldn't have known what he was looking for when he read them, if he'd had them a while (and he couldn't really argue with that without giving the game away). But still, they knew nothing new about the Heir by the time the other students returned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't be worried if it's another week or so before the next chapter. I promise I won't forget about it.
> 
> I accidentally lost the formatting on this chapter, so there may be some missing italics in places.
> 
> Also, if anyone's a cooking buff, you may argue that "chiffonade" is the wrong culinary metaphor, but I wanted to use one, and liked the word.


	10. Chapter 10

Harry was declared fit to attend classes when they started again after the holidays (though Madam Pomfrey warned him that he should make sure to not over-exert himself). He was getting a lot of stares from the student body, many of them seemingly surprised that he wasn't dead, and looking for signs he'd been impacted by the incident at Duelling Club. People seemed particularly shocked that he wasn't shunning Draco. There was a whole assortment of rumours flying around (including: Draco was the Heir of Slytherin, Harry was the Heir of Slytherin and had asked Draco to curse him to deflect suspicion, Draco had cursed Harry in some way (the Imperius, one Ravenclaw was heard saying) and was forcing him to remain his friend, and even that Harry had indeed been killed by Draco and this Harry was his secret back-up twin that Dumbledore had been hiding all these years in case something happened to the Boy-Who-Lived).

Draco served his detentions with Snape scrubbing cauldrons. It was good practice at maintaining his occlumency shields against Snape's frequent attacks, if otherwise boring.

The announcement in the Daily Prophet that the retrial of Sirius Black had finally begun barely distracted the Hogwarts rumour-mongerers. Even the shock revelation that Black had never actually had an original trial seemed of little interest to most of the Hogwarts population. _This school is full of idiots! Does nobody pay the slightest bit of attention to the news!? And our government is even more shit than I thought! Just when I thought my opinion of them couldn't get any lower, it turns out they've been locking people in Azkaban without even a trial!_ (Okay, so one person that they knew of, but Draco would guess that if it happened once, it probably happened multiple times).

Draco arrived at the Room of Requirement, expecting to have his daily discussion and analysis session with his friends of the latest updates on Black's trial, only to find them impatiently waiting for him.

"Draco!" Harry called, jumping to his feet, "Guess what we found out! Apparently it was Hagrid who opened the Chamber of Secrets last time!" Draco was suddenly flooded with a recollection that Hagrid was indeed arrested in Draco's first second year (in fact, he was pretty sure his father had something to do with that). He also recalled that Hagrid was released at the end of the year, and the consensus seemed to be that he was completely innocent. Draco had no doubt in his mind that Hagrid was not the Heir of Slytherin. He couldn't think of a less likely person. Sure, the man was a bit of a fool, and clearly had no common sense when it came to dangerous creatures. But if he had found Slytherin's monster (and how on Earth would he have managed that?), there was no way he'd use it to attack people. He lacked the sadism, blood-purist bigotry, and quite frankly, the intelligence, to pull that off.

"Don't be ridiculous! What in Merlin's name gave you that idea?"

"I know you don't want to believe it. I don't either. But I saw it with my own eyes!"

"You saw Hagrid petrifying someone? Wait, has someone else been attacked!?"

"No. But I saw that he had the monster, back when he was at school. He was trying to raise it. But it killed someone, and he got caught. They expelled him, and snapped his wand."

"How did you see this?"

"In a diary."

"You mean you read it? Whose diary?"

"Someone called Tom Riddle. He was at school with Hagrid, a Slytherin prefect. He was the one who caught Hagrid. But I didn't read it. Tom showed me."

"How? In a pensieve?"

"What's a pensieve?" _Merlin, preserve me…_

"A type of magical bowl for viewing memories."

"No, there wasn't any bowl. The diary made like a little television screen, then I fell into it, and I was in the scene. Well except I wasn't, because no one could see me." Draco didn't really understand the television reference, but the rest of that sounded rather like a pensieve, and yet not.

"That sounds like what happens with a pensieve. But I've never heard of a book doing that before. Where did you get it?"

"That's the thing. Me and Ron found it in Myrtle's bathroom yesterday. We were heading back from here, you know, after you and Hermione had already gone, when we heard Filch shouting."

"Turns out someone had flooded the bathroom and wet all the corridor again. He was not happy," Ron added.

"Neither was Myrtle. She seemed to think someone had chucked the diary at her. Though I think it seemed more like someone had just tried to flush it down the toilet for some reason. It hadn't been damaged by it though, which was the first sign it was special. Then when we went to show it to Hermione in the common room, I accidentally knocked over her bottle of ink on it. But it didn't get dirty. So later on, I decided to try writing in it, to see what happened. That's when Tom told me about what happened with the Chamber of Secrets. He says a girl died, but it was hushed up, and they just gave him a trophy and told him to keep his mouth shut! Then he offered to show me what happened. That's when I fell into the diary, and saw Hagrid with the monster and everything!"

"And you believed him!? Look, I've never heard of a diary like this before, and I don't like the sound of it. And surely you must think something here doesn't add up? I don't believe Hagrid is the Heir of Slytherin, and before you ask, it's not because he's our… _friend_." [That last word was pretty hard for Draco to get out. Much to his surprise, he'd come to actually like the ridiculous man, but considering how much he used to detest/disapprove of him, it was still… weird.] "Let me see this diary."

"I left it in my trunk when I was grabbing my books this morning."

"Well, can you go get it?"

"Now?"

"If that's not too much trouble. We should get to the bottom of this as soon as possible." There was something about the whole situation that was making Draco's skin crawl. It didn't feel right. _Was there a diary mentioned last time?_ Draco wasn't sure, but felt he had a vague memory of the word being thrown around after whatever it was Potter did at the end of the year which apparently fixed the situation.

They all wandered in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Hermione stayed outside to keep Draco company.

"So you didn't think there was anything weird about that diary?" he asked her.

"Well, I didn't really get to see it. Harry knocked my ink over on it, and then took it away before I got a good look."

They were interrupted by Harry dashing back out of the common room.

"IT'S GONE!!! SOMEONE'S TAKEN IT!!!" he yelled.

"What?"

"Someone's clearly been rooting through my stuff, and they've taken it from my trunk!"

"They got past your locking charms?"

"What locking charms?" Harry asked, looking terribly confused and naïve. _Gryffindors. I really need to teach him some good old Slytherin distrust when it comes to other people and his possessions._

"The apparently non-existent ones. But who knew you had this diary?"

"Well, you three. The common room was pretty empty when we brought it back yesterday, but I guess someone could have seen it."

"Hmm. Well, this is clearly yet another thing we need to investigate. Why don't you try and think of who could have taken the diary, and maybe have a nosy round with your invisibility cloak, see if you can find it? Ron, can you research this 'Tom Riddle' character? _I feel I've heard that name somewhere before…_ Hermione, can you see if you can find any reference to books that can act like pensieves, or any spells which might have contributed to the diary? I'll try and see if I can find anything out about this girl you said was killed, or about Hagrid's expulsion."

" _Urgh, research…_ " Ron muttered to himself. " _Who put you in charge anyway?"_

By the end of the evening, they hadn't discovered much. Harry didn't know who'd taken the diary, and hadn't found it again. Ron had only managed to confirm that Tom Riddle was a Slytherin prefect (and then Head Boy), most of which they already knew. Hermione hadn't managed to come up with anything of use (much to her frustration). Draco's research was fruitless too (it appeared 'Tom' had apparently been right when he said the whole thing had been hushed up). Their best source would be Hagrid himself (hopefully he'd be as loose-lipped as he'd been on previous occasions). Draco's friends seemed rather reluctant to confront Hagrid (surprisingly cowardly for Gryffindors), but Draco pointed out that finding out the truth was in Hagrid's best interest, and if they framed it that way rather than running in, wands cocked, accusing him, then he'd probably explain what happened, and how he'd been falsely accused. So they agreed that they'd go see him straight after classes the next day.

Draco took point on their interrogation.

"Hagrid, we know you were accused of opening the Chamber of Secrets last time. We know it wasn't you. But we need you to tell us what happened." Hagrid responded with a few seconds of silence, then unfinished questions like "how?"

"No," he eventually managed to get out. "I don't know how yeh found out what yeh did, but yeh need to stop diggin' into this. It's dangerous! Yeh almost got killed last year when yeh kept on nosying about the stone!"

"Hagrid, we're already in danger! Something and someone is going around petrifying pupils! If we can find out about how, or who, or what, then maybe it will be easier for us to avoid them."

"What is it yeh want me to tell yeh?" Hagrid asked, in a tone suggesting he wasn't entirely convinced, but was coming round to the idea.

"Well, for a start, what was the creature you had, that was accused of being Slytherin's monster?"

"He wasn't the monster! He din't hurt nobody!" Draco raised an eyebrow to ask for him to continue. "Aragog. He's an acromantula."

"An acromantula! Hagrid, you had an acromantula in a school!" Hermione exclaimed. Draco glared at her.

"And Aragog, he wasn't the monster?" Draco asked, trying to keep a non-accusatory voice.

"No! He din't attack the girl! He lived the whole time in the box I kept him in, until I set him free!"

"You set him free?"

"Yeah, he begged me to. He could sense the monster in the school, and he was scared. After they accused me, I knew they'd kill him when they found him! I had to! I couldn't let them kill him!"

"He could sense the monster? Did he tell you what it was?"

"He wouldn't say. I asked, but he wouldn't. He would just say it was an ancient creature spiders fear above all others."

"And where is he now?"

"He lives in the forest. I found him a mate, and he has a family now," Hagrid replied, with a dreamy smile on his face. _A family of acromantula in the forest. Because that place wasn't enough of a nightmare realm_. "You should go ask him. Maybe after all this time, he'll be willing to talk?" _I doubt it…_

"The girl who was killed," Hermione asked, "Who was she?"

"Myrtle Warren. She was nice. They found her in one of the bathrooms."

"Wait, you don't mean _Moaning Myrtle_ do you?" she asked.

"I'd heard she'd stayed as a ghost, but I've never managed to bring myself to go see her. She din't deserve that."

"What can you tell us about Tom Riddle?" Harry asked, after a brief silence.

"He was the one who saw me with Aragog."

"Do you think he set you up?"

"I think he was just doing what he thought was right. He thought Aragog was Slytherin's monster, and so just thought he was doing his duty as a Prefect."

"What do you know about him?"

"Not much. He was a few years above me, and a Slytherin so I din't see him much. Don't know anything about what became of him after he left school."

"Thank you for telling us all this Hagrid," Draco told him as they were leaving. "Hopefully we can use it to help clear your name."

"I just want everybody to be safe. You lot take care, now. Don't go round taking unnecessary risks."

"We won't," Harry promised. _Well, that's almost certainly a lie._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been a while. I've been busy. Hopefully I'll be able to make another chapter in the next week or so, but we'll have to see. I haven't decided quite where I'm going with the story at this point, so we'll have to see.
> 
> Edit: On re-reading I realised Draco never served his detentions with Snape, so I've added that now.


	11. Chapter 11

"So that was productive. I told you we should ask Hagrid."

"Okay, yes," Harry reluctantly agreed, "So what do we do now? Should we go find this Aragog?"

"Are you crazy!?" Ron yelled, "We're not going to have a chit-chat with a giant man-eating spider!"

"I agree that we should forgo that idea, at least for now. I would also like to avoid that conversation, if at all possible."

"Well, what should we do?"

"How about Harry and I go interview Myrtle, and Ron and Hermione start researching about creatures that spiders fear?"

"Why am I on research?" Ron moaned.

"Because you seem to be good at pissing Myrtle off, and we want her in a good mood." Ron looked to sulk a little at that, but didn't refute it.

Draco cautiously opened the door to Myrtle's bathroom. Nobody used it, but it would be an awkward meeting if some student had decided to go there. Plus, with Myrtle, you never knew quite what mood she was in (mildly moody to massive hissy-fit).

"What are you two doing here?" she asked, sounding suspicious, but maybe cautiously pleased to see them.

"We were wondering if you'd be able to answer a few questions for us, if it's okay? About how you died." Draco had tried to be careful with his words, but was still half-expecting the ghost to fly off the handle. Much to his surprise, she actually looked thrilled by the question.

"Ooh, it was dreadful! It happened right in here. That very cubicle." She gestured towards one of the cubicles as if it was the most fascinating sight in the world. Draco peered in, trying to look suitably interested. Harry gave it a vague glance.

"What happened?"

"I'd been hiding in here because Olive Hornby had been teasing me about my glasses. I was crying, and I didn't want anyone to see. But then I heard someone come in. They said something funny. I think it must have been a different language."

"Which language?" Draco asked, interrupting.

"I don't know. I was more interested that…"

"What did it sound like?"

"Well, kind of… hissy… I guess," Myrtle replied, looked quite peeved by the interruptions to her story.

"Hissy? Like _Parseltongue?_ "

"I don't know. I don't know what parseltongue sounds like."

"Harry!" Draco exclaimed, looking at his friend expectedly.

"I don't think I can do it when I'm not talking to a snake…" he protested. Draco sighed and summoned a small grass snake. Myrtle gasped. Harry started quietly hissing at the snake.

"That's Parseltongue?" Myrtle asked.

"Yes. Is that what you heard?"

"Yes, I think maybe. But…"

"Have you heard it some other time?" Draco asked, feeling like they were on the edges of a breakthrough.

"I think I keep hearing someone making noises like that. I've not seen them, but I keep hearing them. I thought maybe it was just the pipes at first."

"Who?"

"I don't know. I think it was a girl though. Not like when I died. That was a boy. That's why I left my cubicle. Because there was a _boy_ in the girls bathroom. I came out to tell him off, and then _I died._ "

"How?" Harry asked.

"No idea. I just remember seeing a pair of great big yellow eyes. My whole body sort of seized up, and then I was floating away…" she paused to look dreamily at Harry, before smirking. "And then I came back again. I was determined to haunt Olive Hornby, you see. Oh, she was sorry she'd ever laughed at my glasses." For a rather pathetic ghost, she was actually quite menacing just then. Draco didn't know what became of Olive Hornby, but he had the feeling it wasn't good.

"Well, thank you for telling us all that, Myrtle. You've been really helpful."

"Are you going to come back and visit me again soon?"

"We'll try…" Harry replied rather insincerely, before pulling Draco out of the door.

They located Hermione and Ron in the library, surrounded by a wall of books. Ron looked ready to beat himself to death with them.

"Guess what we discovered!" Harry exclaimed.

"What?" asked Ron, looking pleased to have a distraction from research.

"Not here," Draco whispered warningly. Luckily his friends seemed to understand the need for some subtlety. Hermione insisted on checking out half the books in the pile. Draco decided to be gracious and help her carry them over to the Room of Requirement.

"So Myrtle heard Parseltongue just before she died?" Hermione summarised.

"She thinks so, yeah."

"Do you know what this means?"

"That Slytherin's monster is more than likely a snake of some kind? I mean, it makes sense. How has nobody realised that before? I mean, come on!" Draco gestured to the snake of the Slytherin crest on his robes.

"But what kind of snake petrifies people?"

"You haven't found anything in your research?"

"Not so far. But I didn't know we were looking for a snake."

"That's what I heard!" Harry suddenly exclaimed. They all looked at him to ask what in Merlin's name he was on about. "The night we found Mrs Norris! I said I heard something saying it was going to kill, and you guys couldn't hear anything! I must have heard the snake!"

"Oh, of course!" Hermione agreed. "But where was it? We didn't see it."

"It sounded to be coming from within the walls or somewhere."

"Hmm…" was all Hermione replied, diving her way into one of her many books. Draco decided to have a glance at one of them that he'd not read before. Ron seemed to be avoiding doing any more research unless directly ordered, and co-opted Harry into a game of chess.

"It's a Basilisk!" Hermione yelled, startling them all. She began reading from her book: " _Of the many fearsome beasts and monsters that roam our land, there is none more curious or more deadly than the Basilisk, known also as the King of Serpents. This snake, which may reach a gigantic size, and live many hundreds of years, is born from a chicken's egg, hatched beneath a toad. Its methods of killing are most wondrous, for aside from its deadly and venomous fangs, the Basilisk has a murderous stare, and all who are fixed with the beam of its eye shall suffer instant death. Spiders flee before the Basilisk, for it is their mortal enemy, and the Basilisk flees only from the crowing of the rooster, which is fatal to it_."

They took a minute to take it all in.

"That all adds up, except it doesn't mention petrification," Harry eventually said. "The instant death bit sounds like what Myrtle said, but how come no one's been killed this time?"

"Maybe it's gotten old?" Ron suggested.

"It's supposedly been around since Hogwarts was founded a thousand years ago. I don't think it's likely a mere fifty years has had any impact on its lethality," Draco argued.

"It's because no one's seen it directly!" Harry announced proudly. "Colin had his camera with him when he was brought into the Hospital Wing! He must have seen it through that! Justin… must have seen the Basilisk through Nearly Headless Nick! Nick got the full blast but he couldn't die again."

"And Mrs Norris?" Ron asked.

"Saw the Basilisk in the reflection of all that water that was around," Hermione finished.

"Okay, so yeah, it's a Basilisk," Ron concluded. "But how's it getting around? Harry said he thought he heard it in the walls, but that book just said it may reach a massive size. How is a dirty great snake fitting in the walls?"

"The pipes!" Hermione exclaimed.

"The pipes," Ron echoed, thinking. "So what if it's been getting into them from a bathroom? Maybe that's where the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets is…"

"Myrtle's bathroom! The entrance is in Myrtle's bathroom!" Harry concluded. _Holy fucking Merlin!_

"So what do we do now?" Harry asked, after they'd all spent a good few minutes revelling in the revelation.

"Well, we still don't know who the Heir is," Hermione pointed out.

"Myrtle said she thought the voice she heard was female," Draco commented.

"Plus she's apparently a Parselmouth," Ron added.

"But that doesn't help, because the only Parselmouth we know of is Harry, and he's male," Hermione replied.

"And also not the Heir…" the boy in question retorted.

"Well, they must be hiding it," Ron argued.

"It doesn't matter!" Harry exclaimed. "We know what the monster is! We know how it's getting around! We know where the entrance to the Chamber is! It doesn't matter who the Heir is. If we stop the monster, we stop the attacks!"

"You can't be seriously suggesting we go try and fight a Basilisk. Did you not hear how deadly the book said they are?" Draco spluttered in shock. _There's Gryffindor foolhardiness, and then there's… this!_

"We can't do nothing. Not when we could help!"

"There's not doing nothing, and then there's charging straight into danger without a thought! At the very minimum, we need to think of some kind of a plan, before we even consider going after the Basilisk."

"Fine, we'll come up with a plan then. What do you suggest?"

"Well, for a start we need to think about how we're going to fight the Basilisk. The book said that the crowing of roosters is deadly to them, right?"

"Hagrid had some roosters!" Hermione exclaimed, "Something killed them!"

"Must have been the Heir! Okay, so we need to get our hands on some roosters, somehow. Not sure how we're going to do that. Any ideas?"

"Maybe we could get one from the kitchens?" Ron suggested.

"Don't be ridiculous Ronald!" Hermione admonished him, "They don't have live animals in the kitchens!"

"Elves! That's the answer! Good thinking Ron!" Draco beamed. "Dobby!"

The elf appeared, looking sulky. He cheered up slightly on spotting Harry.

"Dobby, I need you to do something for me. For all of us. _For Harry._ " The last part seemed to get the elf's interest.

"What is it Master Draco would ask of Dobby?"

"I… _we_ need you to get us a rooster. A live rooster."

"Dobby can do that. It may take a day or so."

"That's fine. Can you track one down, then I'll let you know when we need it?"

"Yes, Master Draco."

"Thank you Dobby." Just before the elf left, Draco added one more thing. "And Dobby? I need you not to tell anyone about this." The elf vaguely nodded in acquiescence, before apparating away.

That done, they went back to doing more planning. Draco was still against the idea of trying to fight the Basilisk, but he had the feeling it was inevitable, and he could either spend his efforts hopelessly fighting it, or trying to reduce the chances of them dying. He suggested that they try and use the fact (well, hypothesis) that the Basilisk could only kill by looking directly, in order to make some form of special glasses that would give them some protection, by hopefully making sure, if worst came to the worst, they'd only get petrified, not killed. Hermione took that idea and ran with it, brainstorming all kind of spells they could use.

All in all, by the end of the evening, they seemed to be coming up with a good plan. Given a few days, they might actually be ready to tackle the Basilisk. He went to bed feeling quite pleased with himself. Today had been a productive day.

His good mood was suddenly broken the next day, as he and his fellow Slytherins were walking between classes, past the remains of old graffiti the Heir had left. But now, there was a second line, below the first. One Draco had seen before.

HER SKELETON WILL LIE IN THE CHAMBER FOREVER

_Oh fuck. Not again._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me a while to decide where to go at this point. I did have an idea for them to go into the forest still, but it didn't seem to fit. So I decided moving the whole plot forward made the most sense narrative-wise.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who's been supporting and following the fic! I start work next week, so I don't know how often I'll be able to write, but I'll try not to keep you waiting too long between updates (but please have patience with me).


	12. Chapter 12

They all stood staring at the graffiti, shocked. The Slytherins had generally had mixed reactions to the idea of the Heir purging the school of mudbloods, with the older years generally being more pro, but more quiet. But none of Draco's class had anything to say right now (Draco was ashamed to say, the younger him probably would be making some kind of celebratory remarks).

But why was this happening now? The Heir hadn't taken a victim to the Chamber until much later in the year last time. They'd petrified more victims beforehand too (Draco remembered that Hermione was one of them). What had changed? Was it somehow something Draco had done?

Once again, the message said "her". But who was it? Would it still be Ginny Weasley? The fact the timeline had changed would suggest it would be someone else. Why would it be Weasley? She was a pureblood (from a family of "blood-traitors", but pureblood none-the-less).

A group of first-year Hufflepuffs came round the corner, and the silence was broken by frantic screaming. That quickly attracted a crowd. McGonagall soon arrived and took charge.

"All students to congregate in the Great Hall. Prefects are to take roll-call of their Houses. Teachers, meet in the staffroom please," she announced, magically magnifying her voice across the whole school.

When Draco and the crowd arrived at the Great Hall, it was chaos. Word was just starting to get around about the Heir having apparently claimed a victim. Everyone was trying to find out what was going on, and work out who was missing. Draco managed to fight his way through the crowd towards his Gryffindor friends, who had just arrived.

"Draco! What's going on!?" Hermione asked.

"The Heir's left a new message: ' _Her skeleton will lie in the Chamber forever'."_

"Whose skeleton?" Harry asked.

"Nobody seems to know yet."

Just then, they were interrupted by one of the Weasley twins (his doppelganger running behind him).

"Ron! Have you seen Ginny!?"

"No. Why?" Ron replied, looking apprehensive.

"Isn't that her class?" twin one asked, pointing towards a crowd of first-year Gryffindors. "Where is she?"

Ron went over to one of the Gryffindors in question, grabbing them by the shoulder.

"Where's Ginny!?"

"I don't know!" the girl replied, looking rather intimidated by Ron. "She wasn't in class this morning."

_Oh shit. It is her. I should have known_ .

The Prefects then started insisting all the Houses line up so they could count them, so Draco had to head back across to the Slytherins. He saw the older Weasley, the one who was a Prefect, waving his arms around frantically when he got to his siblings, so he must have heard about their sister being missing.

It was soon established that Ginny Weasley was indeed the only student unaccounted for (the only other pupils not there were already known to be lying petrified in the Hospital Wing). Now all the students were sat at the House tables, awaiting news from the teachers.

Eventually, Dumbledore and the Heads of Houses arrived. Dumbledore confirmed what they already knew, that Ginny Weasley had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets by the Heir. He seemed to be speaking in a tone suggesting he still had hope for her, but the faces of the rest of the teachers present seemed to suggest they thought she was a goner. There was shock amongst the pupils when he announced that everyone would be leaving on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow. Again, he spoke with hope that the school wouldn't be shut for long, but noticeably didn't make any promises about when they'd be back. Finally, he finished off with one of his typical fluffy Dumbledore speeches, before sending them all off to their common rooms.

As the pupils started crowding out of the hall in various states of panic and shock, Draco was struck with the sudden realisation that he needed to sneak away. There was no way his Gryffindor friends would be meekly being swept away to their common room. Particularly not when Ginny Weasley was in danger. Draco wasn't sure how Harry felt about the girl at this point in the timeline (surely they were too young for him to have feelings for her), but she was Ron's sister, and if Harry Potter was one thing, it was loyal to his friends.

He managed to spot them fairly quickly, clearly heading in the direction of Myrtle's bathroom. He snuck up, and dragged them into a nearby empty classroom. He received a face-full of wands for his trouble, until they realised who he was.

"Draco, what are you doing!?" Harry demanded.

"I was going to ask you the same question."

"Were you not listening to anything that's been said? The Heir's got Ginny! We've got to get her back!"

"So you're just going to go running straight in? We've already established that we need a plan!"

"We don't have time! They've got my sister!" Ron exclaimed, sounding more desperate than Draco had ever heard him do. "You might not care about her, but I can't just leave her!"

"I do care about her!" [Was that a lie?] "But I care about you guys too! We need to think this through. We need to do this right, if we're going to save her."

"Well, what do you suggest? We won't have long until they notice we're gone."

"Right. Well for a start, Harry, do you have your Invisibility Cloak on you?"

"No, it's in the dorm."

"Darn. Do you think you'll be able to sneak it out without being caught?"

"I'll manage."

"Okay. Well, how about you and Ron go fetch that. Hermione and I will go to the Room and Requirement and collect the glasses we'd started charming. They're not finished, but hopefully they'll do. And hopefully Dobby's found us a rooster. Rendezvous in Myrtle's bathroom."

Splitting up might not be the best idea, but having the Invisibility Cloak would be an advantage they couldn't afford to pass up on. Hermione and him managed to get to the Room of Requirement without being caught. But it was when Draco summoned Dobby that they met a problem.

"Dobby! We need that rooster now!"

"Dobby's sorry, Master Draco, but he hasn't found a rooster yet. Dobby's been very busy with work for Master Malfoy. Does Master Draco want Dobby to punish himself?" Hermione looked horrified at that suggestion.

"No! Just try and find us a rooster as soon as possible, and bring it straight to me." On second thoughts, he added, "And close your eyes before you apparate to me." He didn't want the elf getting killed after all, even if he didn't think much to the creature. Dobby seemed bemused by Draco's demands, but agreed.

Draco and Hermione had to duck into a classroom to avoid being caught by Professors Sinistra and Vector who were patrolling near Myrtle's bathroom, but eventually managed to sneak their way in. Myrtle was floating around, looking vaguely excited, but there was no sign of Ron or Harry yet.

"What's going on?" the ghost asked. "I heard a girl was dead." She looked indecently happy about that.

"She's not dead!" Hermione protested.

"Myrtle, have you seen anyone coming through here?" Draco questioned.

"No, but I haven't been here all morning. I went for a swim in the lake earlier."

Further questioning was curtailed by the dramatic arrival of Harry, Ron and, for some reason, Lockhart.

"What is he doing here?" Draco asked.

"We came across him on our way here. He was _fleeing_ the school! What about my sister!?" Ron exclaimed. Draco then noticed the man had both Harry and Ron's wands pointing at his back.

"So you decided to kidnap him?"

"He threatened to put a Memory Charm on us!" Harry protested. _I knew the man was a fraud, but really!? Trying to Obliviate two pupils?_

"I'm sure it was a misunderstanding," Hermione defended.

"We don't have time!" Ron yelled. "He's coming with us. End of. Now where's this entrance to the Chamber of Secrets?"

They all started looking round the bathroom, but didn't really know what they were looking for. They didn't even know for sure it was in here.

"Look at this!" Harry called out after a short while.

"That tap's never worked," Myrtle told him, floating above him with an interested grin on her face. The rest of them crowded round. There was a little snake scratched into the side of the tap.

"Say something in Parseltongue!" Ron exclaimed.

"Open up," Harry said. In English. Ron informed him thusly. Draco was about to offer to summon a snake when Harry starred at the carving, bobbing his head around. This time when he opened his mouth, a sibilant hiss came out, followed by a strange glow erupting from the tap. They all watched in fascination and shock as the sink sunk away to leave a wide pipe.

"So… who first?" Draco asked after a few seconds of silence. No one answered immediately.

"Why don't we send him first?" Ron suggested, poking at Lockhart with his wand.

"I think one part of good hostage-taking is don't leave your hostage alone. So maybe we shouldn't send him first?"

"Fine, you go first then."

Draco peered into the hole. He didn't much fancy going first. He didn't know what was down there. Harry and Ron had almost certainly gone down there last time and both survived, so it couldn't be too deadly, but still. This whole plan seemed ridiculously Gryffindor.

_Well, here goes nothing._ Draco cast a shield on himself then slowly climbed into the hole, taking a breath before letting go and allowing himself to slide down into the unknown.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a fairly short chapter, but this seemed like a good point to leave it (and I prefer my chapters to be reasonably short).


	13. Chapter 13

Just as Draco was concluding to himself that going first was a terrible, and possibly fatal, mistake, the pipe levelled out and he was spat out into a large, dark, damp tunnel. His shield had kept the worst of the dirt off him, so he was considerably cleaner than Lockhart, who emerged screaming shortly afterwards, covered in slime of some sort. Draco wasn't sure what the slime was, but his friends seemed to manage to avoid it, though all their robes were now pretty filthy, even Hermione, who was usually fairly well (albeit plainly) presented.

"We must be miles under the school," Harry announced.

"Under the lake, probably," Ron added. _I wonder how far we are from the common room? Slytherin might have put another exit in connecting to it._

Harry cast a Lumos and started leading the way, pausing so Hermione could pass out the glasses they'd brought.

"They're untested, but hopefully should prevent the Basilisk from killing us," she told them.

"But better be safe than sorry, so close your eyes if you see any sign of movement," Draco added.

The tunnel went on. At first the only thing in it was a load of skeletons of small mammals (mostly rats by the looks of it). But then Harry gave out a shout to close their eyes. Draco listened apprehensively as his friend crept forward.

"It's okay!" he announced, "It's just a skin!" ' _Just a skin_ ' was rather an understatement. It was the shed skin of what must be a humongous serpent, twenty foot long at a minimum. They all stopped to inspect it, apart from Lockhart, who sat cowering on the ground.

"Get up!" Ron demanded, waving his wand at the man. Turns out that was a mistake. Lockhart took that as an opportunity to charge at him, grabbing his wand.

"The adventure ends here, boys and girls!" the prat announced, waving the wand at them. "I shall take a bit of this skin back up to the school, tell them I was too late to save the girl, and you four _tragically_ lost your minds at the sight of her mangled body."

"Come off it, it's four against one!" Harry shouted. Lockhart ignored him.

"Say goodbye to your memories!" He raised Ron's wand high, and yelled "Obliviate!"

Draco should have been quicker trying to disarm the man before he could get a spell off, but he'd been distracted by the pure _boldness_ of the idiot. But now he was the idiot. And apparently about to be a mindless idiot.

_What will happen if I get Obliviated? I might forget why I'm back here. I might forget I came back at all. What if I go back to being the naïve spoilt child I was in my original second year!?_

In the millisecond Draco had before oblivion, he dove. He didn't have time to think through a plan. He just acted on instinct. He fell to the ground, limbs tangled in something soft and warm (presumably another person's limbs), as a loud boom blasted his ears, and hard bits pelted his back.

He possibly passed out for a second or two. He was suddenly aware of the feeling of someone trying to wiggle out from underneath him. His whole body was sore. As he made to sit up to let them out from under him, he felt weight pouring off his back. Multiple rocks scratched his skin on their way to the ground. He raised a hand to the back of his head and felt a trickle of blood.

"Draco, are you alright?" a voice asked. He looked towards it. It was Harry, holding out an arm to help him up. He took it and struggled to his feet. He couldn't see any signs of anyone else through the settling dust. Half the roof of the tunnel appeared to have come down.

"You guys alright?" he heard Ron shouting. The sound was muffled.

"Yeah, I think so," Harry replied. "Are you? Where are you guys?"

"I think we’re on the other side of the cave-in to you," Hermione announced. "We're alright, but Professor Lockhart's stuck! His legs are trapped by the falling rocks."

"Serves the fucker right. He just tried to Obliviate us!" Ron commented. Draco agreed with that statement.

"I don't think we'll be able to get through anytime soon," Hermione added, ignoring Ron. "If we blast the rock, it could bring more down, or risk trapping Professor Lockhart further."

"You two do what you can to clear some of the rock. Draco and I will go find Ginny. If we're not back in an hour…" _Well, that ominous pause just fills me with confidence._

"Good luck!" called Hermione.

"Guys, be careful!" Ron added. He seemed to be struggling to keep the emotion out of his voice. "Thank you…"

"See you in a bit," Harry cut him off, with false cheer.

"Yeah, we'll be back with Ginny in no time at all," Draco reassured. _I hope._

It was weird, leaving their friends behind. Harry got the Invisibility Cloak out of his pocket and put it over the two of them (since now they'd fit under it). They continued following the tunnel, which seemed like it would never end. But eventually they were met with a solid wall, carved with a pair of entwined serpents. Harry made a hiss, and they parted, the wall cracking open into two halves and sliding away to leave an entranceway.

They entered a super-creepy chamber, full of columns decorated with what even Draco thought was too many snakes (and he was used to snake decorations in the Slytherin common room). Even more creepy was the humongous statue of, Draco guessed, Salazar Slytherin (though if it was, it wasn't a particularly flattering likeness. _Maybe he couldn't find any decent sculptors that he trusted to tell about his secret chamber_?) At the base of the statue lay a lump of dark robes and ginger hair.

" _Ginny_! Ginny! Don't be dead! Please don't be dead!" Harry begged, running towards her, throwing himself down next to her and carelessly tossing his wand aside so he could shake her toneless form. Draco could understand Harry's concern, but not his oblivious to danger attitude. _Clearly I need to cover "don't abandon your wand" as part of my 'wand care' teaching._

Draco's eye was caught by a figure stood nearby, who was watching Harry with a rather malevolent looking interest. The sight of him gave Draco the chills. He wasn't a ghost, or not a normal ghost anyway, but he clearly wasn't fully corporal, with blurred edges and a slightly translucent appearance.

"She won't wake," the figure told a still panicking Harry, causing the boy in question to jump.

"Tom- Tom Riddle?" he asked. _Wait, what? The prefect who accused Hagrid? That seems a weird, and suspicious coincidence._ The figure nodded at Harry. Draco wasn't sure whether Riddle hadn't noticed him yet, or was just ignoring him.

"What d'you mean, she won't wake? She's not- she's not-?" Harry asked desperately.

"She's still alive. But only just."

Draco noticed the figure was closing in on Harry and Weasley.

"Oi, Tom. Stay back," he warned, gesturing with his wand. Riddle finally turned towards Draco, giving him a slightly terrifying shit-eating grin. Draco didn't think many people could intimidate him after all he'd lived through, but he was feeling a bit intimidated now. He wasn't going to show it though. Not if he could help it.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, moving further towards the other two.

"Because I'm the one pointing a wand at you."

"You think you scare me? Whoever you are, you're insignificant compared to me."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," Draco replied, summoning every inch of the pompous smugness he used to exude. Riddle looked vaguely impressed, and also slightly surprised. "And you're just, what, a muggleborn nobody?"

"Malfoy? I have heard about you. A pathetic blood traitor, and a shame on your House, apparently. As for me, I am greater than you know." He paused to smirk dramatically. "And I'm also holding a wand."

Sure enough, somehow, Riddle had managed to grab Harry's wand without Draco (or Harry noticing). _Damn it._ He began to trace it through the air. Draco was surprised to find, rather than immediately casting a curse, the figure seemed to be casting his name in the air in shimmering letters.

TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE

Draco was about to make a sarcastic retort when the letters started rearranging themselves.

I AM LORD VOLDEMORT

_Wait, what!?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I wondered about having Draco get obliviated in this chapter. In fact, I have an idea for a spin-off exploring what happens if Draco did get obliviated of all of his memories post his original second year, which I may write at some point.  
> I'm not sure about whether this was a good place to stop or not (I guess you could call it a cliffhanger, except one that every single one of us knew was coming), but I didn't want to keep you waiting much longer, so I thought I'd upload what I have.  
> Again, I'll try to get the next chapter to you when I can.


	14. Chapter 14

_What the actual fuck!?_

_How?_

_What?_

_But…_

_How can Tom Riddle be Voldemort? Voldemort's a half-blood raised in a muggle orphanage? He sure kept that quiet…_

_I knew that name sounded familiar for some reason. And I guess this explains why Tom Riddle seems creepy as hell. I should have realised this before!_

Before Draco had chance to absorb and reflect on this shocking development anymore, Riddle (/Voldemort/the Dark Lord/You-Know-Who/He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named/Whatever the fuck you want to call the bastard) started monologuing.

"You see? You see how powerful I am? I know you fear me, even if you foolishly have decided to befriend Potter here. I was never going to keep on using my filthy muggle father's name. I, in whose veins runs the blood of Salazar Slytherin, through my mother's side? I, keep the name of a foul, common muggle, who abandoned me even before I was born, just because he found out his wife was a witch? No, I fashioned a new name, a name I knew wizards everywhere would one day fear to speak, when I had become the greatest sorcerer in the world!"

"You're not," Harry replied, voice full of anger. Riddle seemed almost surprised to hear him speak.

"Not what?" he snapped back.

"Not the greatest sorcerer in the world. Sorry to disappoint you, and all that, but the greatest wizard in the world is Albus Dumbledore. Everyone says so. Even when you were strong, you didn't dare try and take over Hogwarts. Dumbledore saw through you when you were at school and he still frightens you now, wherever you're hiding these days."

"Given a few more weeks, I’d have had Dumbledore driven out of this castle by the mere _memory_ of me, I'm sure. But it seems now like I'll just have to physically drive him out myself."

"And how are you going to do that?" Draco asked. "You're barely more than an echo. You couldn't defeat Dumbledore before, and you won't do now, or ever. Not fully. I wouldn't say I _like_ the man, but I respect his power, and his ability to plan and play situations to his advantage. He could have been a Slytherin really."

"DO NOT DEFAME THE HOUSE OF MY ANCESTOR BY CLAIMING THAT _MAN_ BELONGS THERE."

"You're the one ruining Slytherin's legacy. Both through what you've done to our house, making it associated with your toxic self-obsessed agenda, the focus of hate from so much of our population, and what you've done with Slytherin's chamber, and his basilisk. I won't say I know what Slytherin wanted when he created it, but I can't imagine it was this."

"Who are you to question me? I am the Heir of Slytherin!"

"And about that, how have you been hanging around the school this year, like a bad smell, ruining things for everyone? How are you here?"

"Ah, you have your little friend here to blame for that."

"Ginny!?" Harry asked. "How?"

"My diary. Little Ginny's been writing in it for months, telling me all her pitiful worries and woes: how her brothers tease her, how she had to come to school with second-hand robes and books, how she didn't think famous, good, great Harry Potter would ever like her." Riddle smugly bragged about how he had got the girl to trust him, to confide in him, to listen to him. Draco actually felt kind of ill as he heard how the spectre had got inside her mind, taking her over, making her do things. He'd had to do things for Voldemort, and that was just through fear, not mind control. He wouldn't wish it on his worst enemy. ( _Who even is my worst enemy anymore? Voldemort himself?_ ).

"It took a very long time for stupid little Ginny to stop trusting her diary. But she finally became suspicious and tried to dispose of it. And that's where you came in, Harry. You found it, and I couldn't have been more delighted. Of all the people who could have picked it up, it was you, the very person I was most anxious to meet. I knew I must find out more about you, talk to you, meet you if I could. So I decided to show you my famous capture of that great oaf, Hagrid, to gain your trust."

"Hagrid's our friend. And you framed him, didn't you?"

"It was my word against Hagrid's. You can imagine how it looked to old Armando Dippet. Of course he trusted me. Anyone would. Well, everyone except Dumbledore. I thought I had you convinced, but I hadn't anticipated that you might actually have _befriended_ the half-breed. To be honest, that did upset my plans slightly. I've had to move up my timeline. But it's just a minor inconvenience. Soon I will be restored. Back to my full power and glory."

"How?" Draco questioned. "Ignoring the fact you were never that powerful or glorious to begin with of course."

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he smirked. Draco waited, but the smug spectre didn't elucidate further. _I wonder why he's not saying?_ Draco took the opportunity to inspect his surroundings. Harry was now crouched protectively in front of Ginny, with Riddle standing over them, pointing Harry's wand in Draco's direction. Draco's eye was caught by a small, non-descript book lying on the floor a little way behind Ginny. _That must be the diary!_ It must be some sort of dark artefact, if that's how Riddle was controlling Ginny. And somehow, how he was there. Draco had never heard of something that, something that would allow someone to come back as some kind of spectre. But if someone had one, it would be Voldemort. He did manage to come back from the dead somehow. _So why isn't he telling us how he's coming back?_ He tried to think over everything Riddle had said.

_He's playing for time!_

_He's sucking the life out of Ginny somehow, and it's taking a while, so he's trying to distract us whilst he gets stronger!_ Sure enough, he did look slightly less translucent than earlier. _We need to stop him! But how?_ Presumably by destroying the diary?

"Accio diary!!!" he yelled. It flew to his hand.

"So…" Riddle snarled, holding the wand in an even more threatening manner. "I was going to let you live for a little bit longer, but it seems you're impatient to die. So I won't let my curiosity delay that. I don't need you two around for my return after all." With that, he began making a loud hiss. Harry wheeled round to look at the statue of Slytherin, and Draco followed. The mouth of the statue was opening up, to leave a massive hole. Draco had a worrying feeling he knew what was going to come out of it.

He looked away. He needed to do something now, before the Basilisk came and killed them. He set about trying to destroy the diary. He began with a basic blasting curse. No effect. Fire. Nothing. If he didn't think it was a dark object before, he did now. Nothing he tried seemed to work.

"Draco! What are we going to do? The basilisk's coming! I can hear it!" Harry shrieked.

"You can talk to snakes! Try and tell it to stop!"

"Ah, but the Basilisk is loyal to me," Riddle gloated. He'd stepped back slightly, seemingly happy to stand by and watch as the creature killed Harry and Draco for him. Sure enough, Harry tried making hissing noises, but the sound of the monster approaching didn't halt. Draco didn't want to look to check, as the goggles might (hopefully) prevent the Basilisk's gaze from killing him, but not from petrifying him, but he was fairly sure it was creeping its way out of the statue.

Harry kept making hissing noises. Draco had no clue what he was saying, but whatever it was, it didn't seem to be stopping the Basilisk in its tracks. In fact, when he risked a glance, the Basilisk seemed to be heading straight for Harry, as he ran towards the other side of the chamber, away from Ginny and Draco.

_Oh wait… no? He's not… He's using himself as bait to draw it away, isn't he?_ That was so ridiculously Gryffindor Draco could have laughed, if it didn't involve his friend courting deadly peril once again.

Even if he disapproved of the Gryffindor tactics, it wouldn't be very Slytherin of him not to make use of the opportunity. So he starting firing curses at the hopefully distracted Basilisk, hoping he didn't hit Harry by accident. Most seemed to be having no effect, unable to penetrate the snake's thick skin. He needed to think this through logically. He sent a Conjunctivitis Curse its way (remembering seeing it being used on a dragon, increasing the chances of it also working for a giant snake). He didn't risk looking to the eyes to check, but thought it might have taken hold. Whether it would have any effect on the deadliness of the gaze was another question. He followed it up with Sectumsempra. He was nervous to use the spell again, but he needed to make use of every spell he had in his arsenal, if they were going to have a chance at defeating the beast. The cuts to the back end of the snake were less deep than he'd perhaps expected, but he might well have taken out the eyes if he'd managed to get a shot on target (again, he'd not risked looking to check).

He heard Harry scream as he dived out of the way of an attempt by the Basilisk to kill him. It was pursuing him as he ran in and out of the columns, and was almost upon him. Draco needed to do something now. He took a big breath, then actually took a proper look towards the front end of the Basilisk, seeing its wide open mouth preparing to apparently eat Harry whole. Its eye was bleeding, clearly injured by Draco's curses. Draco summoned his energy and fired off the most powerful blasting curse he could. The force from it pushed the Basilisk's head to one side, allowing Harry to just get out of the way of its deadly bite. One of the fangs was blasted out of the jaw, flying across the room.

It didn't take long for the Basilisk to recover and prepare for another attack on Harry. Draco heard a distant laugh from Riddle.

_It's Riddle we need to stop! If I can destroy the diary, he won't be here to control the Basilisk anymore!_ But how? He'd used some of his darkest and most destructive spells on it. The Basilisk made another jab at Harry. If he managed to even just nick him with his fangs, Harry would be dead. The venom would see to that. Basilisk venom was one of the most deadly things known to wizards.

_Oh course!!! Venom!!! Basilisk venom might destroy the diary!!!_

Draco cast a protective shield spell over his hand and then yelled "Accio Basilisk fang!" The dislodged fang came flying towards him, into his shielded hand. He grabbed the diary from where he'd stuffed it into his robe pocket, and stabbed the fang into it

A loud piercing scream was emitted, by both the diary and Riddle. Ink spurted out of the diary almost like blood, covering Draco. It was pretty horrifying. He looked over towards the spectre of teenage Voldemort. He was writhing and flailing, and then gone altogether.

Draco took a second to get over the shock of it all, then he remembered the Basilisk.

"HARRY!" he screamed. The Basilisk was right on top of him. Harry only replied in panicked sounding hisses (Draco had not previously been aware that hisses could sound panicked, but apparently they could). The Basilisk had him dead-to-rights, with no chance of escape this time. But just before it caught him in its giant mouth, it suddenly stopped. Draco held his breath. It sounded like Harry and the Basilisk were having a conversation. He had no idea what he was saying, but if the Basilisk wasn't immediately killing him, it must be a good sign, right?

He was distracted by another noise. A faint grown, from behind him. For a terrifying millisecond, Draco thought it was Riddle again, but when he turned round, it was the Weasley girl, stirring. After glancing again to check the Harry didn't appear to be in imminent danger, or requiring his help, he went over to her.

"Malfoy? W-what's going on? Where's R-Riddle? Where's the m-monster?" she sobbed.

"It's okay. You're okay," Draco tried to reassure her. He had very little experience at this kind of thing. "Riddle's gone. We've destroyed the diary. As for the Basilisk? Well, I'm not sure what's going on with that. Harry appears to be having a chat with it." The girl's eyes sparked at the mention of Harry. She began to push herself up, trying to get to her feet, looking for Harry. Draco carefully put the diary and fang away in his pockets then cautiously put an arm around her to help her up. They stumbled towards Harry, who was still hissing at the snake.

"Harry- oh- Harry- I'm so sorry, it was me, I s-swear I d-didn't mean to!" the girl cried, trying to run towards him (but Draco was still supporting half her weight, so that was pretty difficult).

Harry turned towards them, looking reassuringly calm.

"It's alright, it's not your fault. It's okay. Riddle's gone now, and the Basilisk isn't going to hurt us anymore. Riddle was controlling it, and now it's gone."

"I'm going to be expelled!" the girl wept. "I've looked forward to coming to Hogwarts ever since B-Bill came and n-now I'll have to leave and _w-what'll Mum and Dad say_?"

"You're not going to be expelled," Draco replied. "I can assure you of that. It wasn't your fault."

"No, it wasn't," Harry agreed. "Now let's get you out of here." He put an arm around her from the other side, and they started limping towards the exit.

"Harry," Draco whispered, "What are we going to do about that?" He gestured his head towards the Basilisk, which was now creeping its way back towards the statue, leaving a small trail of blood behind. Draco had managed to wound it, and almost certainly take out at least the left eye, but the injuries were unlikely to be fatal.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we can't just leave a killer snake down here, can we?"

"The attacks weren't it's fault. Riddle was controlling it. It won't hurt anybody now he's gone."

"It might!"

"It won't. It promised."

"You sound like Hagrid!"

"Is that a bad thing?" Harry asked, sounding remarkably innocent. Draco just sighed. This was an argument that could wait for another day, he supposed. He was rather out of fucks to give for today.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure which way to write this scene, but hopefully it turned out okay. I was in two minds on whether to include Fawkes and the Sorting Hat or not. I might have made it too Draco-centric and not included Harry enough, but let me know what you think.  
> With the timeline having been changed from canon, and this happening earlier in the year, there should be at least another couple of chapters before the end of the fic. I'll try to post them at least every fortnight. I'll probably then take a break for a bit before I start on third year.  
> Also, I already wrote this note and edited the chapter once, but it didn't save, so I've had to do it again, so I might have missed some things. Let me know if you see any typos etc.


	15. Chapter 15

So, in what might well turn out to be a terrible (or great?) decision, they left Basilisk behind and exited the Chamber of Secrets. It seemed like a bit of walk back through the tunnel. All three of them were a bit worse for wear; Ginny seemed to be slowly recovering from whatever exactly it was the diary had been doing to her, but as the adrenaline wore off, Draco found himself feeling more tired (and aware of the fact he'd been in an exploding tunnel earlier), and if Harry's face was anything to go by, his pursuit by the Basilisk had taken a lot out of him.

Eventually they heard the distant sound of rocks moving, then the familiar sound of Hermione lecturing Ron. Draco couldn't hear them properly yet, but it sounded like she thought Ron wasn't clearly the stone efficiently enough or something.

"Ron!" Harry yelled, speeding up, dragging Ginny, and hence Draco, along with him. "Ginny's OK! I've got her!"

_"We've_ got her," Draco added quietly, raising his eyebrows exasperatedly.

Ron came running towards them as they rounded the corner, through the sizeable hole that had been made in the rockfall, charging straight into his sister. He'd probably have bowled her over had she not still had an arm around Draco and Harry's shoulders, who just about managed to hold her up.

"Ginny! You're alive! I don't believe it! What happened?" _Well, he clearly had faith in our rescuing skills…_ The girl was trying to hold her brother off, sobbing. No one answered the question.

"What've you done with Lockhart?" Draco asked, to break the silence.

"He's here," Hermione replied, sticking a head round the corner and gesturing to Lockhart, who appeared to be in a full-body bind next to a neatly stacked pile of rocks. The man looked frustrated, but kind of resigned. And sane. Which if rumours were to be believed, he wasn't last time.

"Ah right. Well, shall we be getting out of here then?"

"How?" Hermione asked. "If you didn't notice, we got here by sliding down a pipe. How are we going to get back up?"

"That's a point. Well, there must be some other way out I imagine. The basilisk was getting out somehow."

"The basilisk was probably climbing up the pipes," Harry countered.

"True. I don't suppose you could go back and ask it to give us a lift?" Ron and Hermione looked gobsmacked at that. _They probably assumed we'd killed it. Or at least that Harry hadn't managed to have a chat with it._

"I'd rather not…"

"Well, how about you do some hissing in Parseltongue then? This place seems to respond to it. Maybe you could ask it for some stairs?" Harry looked irritably at Draco, but humoured him anyway and began making the sibilant noise. His face when an opening appeared in the wall next to them, was priceless.

"Oh… well, that's… convenient," Ron gasped in surprise.

"Where do you think it goes?" Hermione asked.

"Shall we find out?" Draco asked, stepping through the opening. Normally he wouldn't be so _Gryffindor_ to go walking down a strange corridor which suddenly appeared, but quite frankly, today had been rather trying, and he would really appreciate a nice bath, and then his bed. There were even torches lit, illuminating the staircase which could be seen curving up and off into the distance.

"Wait," Hermione demanded, "What are we going to do with him?" She gestured at Lockhart.

"Leave him!" Ron exclaimed. "He tried to bloody curse us!"

"I rather feel leaving a teacher down in a secret deadly chamber might be frowned upon."

"I think cursing a teacher with the body-bind curse might be frowned upon."

"Touché."

In the end, Harry ended up leading the way, with Hermione following, helping to support Ginny (maybe more emotionally than physically, since the girl now seemed rather recovered from Voldemort trying to leech the life out of her), and Draco and Ron making up the rear, levitating a now also rope-bound Lockhart between them (though neither of them were doing a particularly careful job). The stairway wasn't too bad for being steep, but seemed to go on for quite a while. Draco was pretty tired by the time they reached what, at first glance, appeared to be a dead end. Just as Ron started complaining that he didn't want to go all the way back down again, Harry did his thing, and an opening appeared.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, as they all followed him out. Draco looked around for a second.

"We're in the dungeons. Not far from the Common Room. Come on, let's head this way."

"Where are we going?" Ron asked. Multiple answered at once. With different answers.

"Dumbledore's Office," was Harry's reply.

"The Hospital Wing," Hermione had announced.

"Bed," was Draco's answer.

They didn't get a chance to argue it out, because just then, Snape came round the corner, looking rather harried. He took a double take, when he spotted the six of them. They probably did look quite a sight. He didn't even seem to be able to think of one of his usual barbs.

"Evening Professor."

"Malfoy. Care to tell me what in Merlin's name you lot think you're doing?"

"Protecting Slytherin's legacy, by freeing his familiar from tyrannical enslavement?" Again, it seemed to take Snape a few seconds to process that.

"Well, I think you all should come with me, to the Headmaster's Office. There appears to be a crowd of people there who are under the impression that some, or all of you, are dead."

They followed him along, through the empty corridors of the castle. He watched with curiosity when Ron and Draco once again levitated Lockhart from where they'd dropped him on the floor, but didn't say anything.

_"Ginny!_ " a voice screeched, as the door to the Headmaster's Office was opened. A flash of orange came flying towards them, as Mrs Weasley ran over to embrace her daughter, with her husband closely following. Before he knew what was happening, Draco found himself being swept into a tight embrace, along with the rest of them.

"You saved her! You saved her! How did you do it?"

"I think we'd all like to know that," the voice of Professor McGonagall announced from behind the emotional Weasleys. Mrs Weasley stepped back enough that they could see the rest of the occupants of the room. Dumbledore (looking remarkably relaxed, though Draco swore he saw cracks in the mask for a brief instant), McGonagall, looking concerned, Minister Fudge, looking overwhelmed ( _what is he even doing here?_ ) and…

" _Father?_ What are you doing here?"

"Draco. I came here, in my role as Head of the Governers, to assist Minister Fudge in dealing with the… _situation…_ that has been going on at the school this year." To most people, Draco would imagine his father would look completely calm, his trademark steely composure. But Draco could tell that he'd been worried. That he was relieved to see Draco in one piece.

"Yes, quite," Fudge agreed, still looking confused. "But it appears that there's been a development?"

"You could say that," Draco announced, slamming the destroyed diary down on the desk. There was a mixed reaction from the room. Intrigue, confusion, interest. But what caught Draco's eye was his father's reaction. Shock. Recognition. Guilt.

_Father, what have you done?_

"But first, can I suggest we make a stop off at the Hospital Wing?" he added, changing track. "It's been quite a day, and I'm sure we could all use Madam Pomprey's ministrations. You wouldn't resent us medical attention, would you?" No one could reasonably argue with that, so the, now rather large crowd, headed across the school. Madam Pomprey started fussing over them when they arrived, complaining under her breath about how dangerous the school was. Draco and Ron dumped Lockhart on one of the empty beds; everyone was surprisingly treating him like the elephant in the room and completely ignoring him. It appeared they'd moved the petrified students somewhere else (whether it was to free up space for students who actually need active medical attention, or to stop them being on display, making the school look bad, was another question).

When he realised that he wasn't going to be hearing the story any time soon, Fudge seemingly got fed up of hovering around awkwardly, and excused himself.

"Well, it appears all's well here now. I best be heading back to the Ministry. Everything's rather busy there at the moment, with the Pettigrew and Black trials and all. Lucius, I'm sure you can handle things here, and let me know if the help of the Ministry is required."

"Oh course Minister."

Draco managed to catch a moment to talk with his father, whilst Madame Pomprey was busy assessing everyone else. Father raised an eyebrow as Draco cast some rather impressive privacy wards around them.

"So, what was your involvement in this mess?"

"What? I…"

"Don't fucking bullshit me. I saw your face when you saw that bloody diary. What did you do?"

"I only…"

"Were you somehow involved in Ginny Weasley acquiring that diary?" He stared down his father until eventually the man nodded.

"How?"

"I dropped it amongst her stuff when we came across them in Diagon Alley over the summer."

"Why?"

"I wanted rid of it. And yes, I thought it might embarrass Arthur Weasley if his daughter was found with some kind of Dark artefact."

"So you knew it was Dark?"

"I knew it was likely to be a bit dark. But I didn't know what it did. What did it do? What happened?"

"Oh, just nearly led to the death of potentially multiple students, including me."

"I swear I didn't mean for that to happen. You know I would never put you in danger."

"But you'd put others in danger. You'd risk the lives of the whole school, trying to score some cheap political points over a man who happens to be the father of one of your son's friends. Are you a liar, a sadist, or an idiot!?"

"Don't speak to me like that!"

"How should I speak to you!? My friends and I nearly died tonight! And it turns out it's all your fault! I know the Imperius defence you always go with to excuse all the shit you did for Voldemort is complete hippogriff shit, but at least then there was some coersion, or fear, or both. What's your excuse this time? What's your excuse for setting up an eleven year old girl to be possessed by the teenage spirit of fucking Voldemort, and set a fucking basilisk on the school?"

"V… Voldemort?"

"Didn't you know that's what the diary did? Maybe you should have found out, before you sicced it on a fucking child!"

"Is everything alright here?" the voice of Madam Pomprey suddenly interrupted them. Draco turned to find the whole room was staring at them. They hadn't been able to hear what they were saying, but could see that the father and son had tearing each other apart (well, at least the latter was doing so to the former). Draco quickly cancelled the privacy charms.

"Yes, we're fine."

"Well, in that case, shall I take a look at you now dear?" the mediwitch asked, not sounding like she believed Draco, but after so long working in the school, was quite used to children's bullshit (such as the ridiculous excuses they told for how they acquired their various injuries).

She declared him more or less fit, giving him a salve for where the rock-fall had scratched him, recommending that he get some rest, and stay the night in the hospital wing so she could make sure nothing came of his head injury from earlier. Father insisted on helping him apply the salve to his back, which they did in awkward silence.

Eventually all the pupils involved in today's adventure were sat in pyjamas in the hospital beds, and they could delay Dumbledore questioning what happened no longer. The first question was why Lockhart was tied up.

"Oh, that was because he stole my wand and tried to Obliviate us," Ron announced, his relaxed tone a juxtaposition to the reaction of the listening adults. "He managed to bring the tunnel down on us. Quite frankly we're lucky to be alive. He's a menace." The other students nodded (well, except Ginny, who was crouched on her bed, nearly hiding under the sheets, still sniffling). Based on his expression, Lockhart looked like he had something to say, but since he was still frozen, he couldn't.

The tension in the air was suddenly broken by the arrival of Dobby, eyes screwed shut, rooster held aloft in his little arms. Based on the noise the bird was making, it wasn't particularly happy.

"Master Draco! Dobby's got your rooster!" the elf called out.

" _Dobby!?"_ father asked, baffled by the sudden appearance of his House Elf, brandishing poultry. Dobby's face fell at hearing his master's voice, and cautiously cracked an eye open to look around warily.

"Erm, thanks Dobby," Draco muttered nervously, "but I'm not sure if we're going to need the rooster anymore. How about you take it home for now?" The elf took a long stare around the room, pausing on Mr Malfoy to make sure the man wasn't going to imminently punish him, and Harry, to be certain that the boy was okay, before nodding to Draco and apparating away.

The room was all now looking at Draco.

"So… it turns out Slytherin's monster is a basilisk," he announced, to the shock of those in the room who didn't already know. "Was hoping to have a rooster to fight it with, but there was a bit of a supply problem. Never mind, because it all turned out alright in the end, didn't it?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this chapter took ages. Sorry about that. I've been really busy. Can't promise the next chapter will be more punctual, but we can hope.  
> Wasn't sure where to finish this chapter, but figured here was a good a place as any.  
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos everyone's been leaving! I really appreciate it.


	16. Chapter 16

"…And so after Lockhart blew up the tunnel trying to Obliviate us, Harry and I had to continue alone as Hermione and Ron were trapped behind the rock-fall," Draco continued, to an enraptured audience. He'd given a brief-as-possible summary of how they'd worked out the creature was a Basilisk, and decided to go after Ginny, with brief additions from Harry, Ron and Hermione. He'd been particularly careful not to make mention of Harry's Parseltongue abilities; a possibly fruitless endeavour, as with all likelihood, the adults would further interrogate them to fill in the gaps in the story and drag the secret out, but nevertheless, Draco wouldn't have it said he gives up the secrets of his friends easily.

The description of them coming across Ginny lying on the Chamber floor was met with worry from the audience, but the mention of Tom Riddle's appearance just produced confusion. Or so they would all try and have them believe. Draco wasn't too surprised when he saw a very brief flicker cross his father's face (the significance of which, he would have to consider later). He was slightly more surprised that he saw something on Dumbledore's face. Not surprised that Dumbledore knew something. But surprised that he let his poker face slip enough that Draco could spot it. Was the old man more infallible than he'd thought, or was Draco becoming more perceptive? He looked to Snape and McGonagall too. Their faces were unremarkable. Maybe he focussed on them a second too late. Maybe the name Tom Riddle meant nothing to them. Or maybe they had better poker faces. It would be foolish to think he knew everything about these people, and kidded himself he could read them. But if he really had to try, he'd guess that maybe McGonagall was naïve in this case, and Snape was just a good pretender. He barely bothered glancing at the Weasley couple. It was clear on their faces that they had no clue who Tom Riddle really was, and he had zero faith in their ability to put on poker faces.

It was Harry who dropped the bombshell of who Riddle really was, filling the silence Draco had left hanging a second too long as he considered whether he should tell the room or not. It left Draco free to watch the reaction, see the shock on the faces (and evaluate which was real).

"What!?"

"How!?"

"It was the diary," Harry announced, as Ginny sobbed. He went into a brief description of how the it had allowed Riddle to control the girl. Whilst the girl's parents asked questions in horror, Draco ended up in stared conversation with his father. He knew what his father was trying to telepathically ask; would Draco reveal how the diary had ended up in her hands? Draco raised his eyebrows very slightly, as if to ask "why shouldn't I tell them?". His father was almost begging with his eyes. It was rather sad really. Draco had always looked up to his father when he was a child, as a great and powerful figure. Over the years, he'd realised how fallible the man was in truth. But today, today he had really seen him in a new light. A poor light. Pathetic. Bitter. Petty. Whatever the truth regarding his involvement in this mess, it didn't show him in a good light.

He let the conversation pass, and the Weasleys conclude they must have picked it up from a second-hand shop in Diagon Alley, without saying anything. Father looked across at him gratefully. Draco scowled and looked away. Yes, he wasn't grassing him up (or not now anyway), but he hadn't forgiven him.

He distracted himself by helping Harry describe the battle with the Basilisk.

"…yes, so as Harry was distracting the Basilisk and drawing it away from Ginny, I tried to attack the Basilisk. I managed to take one of the eyes out, and knock out a fang. I was pretty desperate so I tried stabbing the diary with the fang and luckily it seemed to work. Ginny woke up and the three of us managed to run out of there. We met up with Ron and Hermione, who had managed to clear the mess Lockhart had created, and well, that's the story really, isn't it?"

"So the Basilisk's still alive?" Snape asked.

"Well, it might be. Probably not. It was definitely injured. We didn't stick around to check. But now the diary's been destroyed, the Chamber should be locked up again anyway, so even if it's not, it shouldn't be a problem anymore."

"Hmm…"

"So the entrance was open when you got there? You said it was in a bathroom on the first floor?" Dumbledore asked, with that irritating knowing twinkle in his eye.

"Erm… yes. And yes." Draco replied cautiously, knowing that that answer would almost certainly not be sufficient. He yawned a dramatically large yawn just as Dumbledore was lining another question up. "I'm sorry Professor, but can we call it a night soon? Today's been a trying day. I for one am exhausted, and I'm sure the others must be too."

"Yes, of course. We shall let you all get some rest," Dumbledore answered with what was probably meant to be a kind grandfatherly smile. "Minerva, Severus, I trust you wrap things up here, whilst I go update the rest of the staff that the matter with Slytherin's Monster has been resolved. Molly, Arthur, Lucius, I'm sure you'll want to say goodnight to your children before you leave." That statement made clear that they weren't invited to stick around. Draco wasn't sure whether the situation would be different if it was just the Weasleys there.

"Well, Draco…" his father began awkwardly, rearranging Draco's sheets in a poor approximation of tucking him in, "I guess I'll leave you to get some rest. Your mother and I will see you at Kings Cross in the Summer." He lent down and kissed Draco on the forehead. "I'm sorry," he whispered in his ear. "I know you're angry with me, but we'll sort it out. I'm glad you're alright." Draco didn't say anything, just closed his eyes and pretended to go to sleep.

Despite how tired he was, he didn't drift off. He listened as Snape walked his father out, then as McGonagall left with the Weasleys. Pomprey, who'd re-entered at some point, pottered around for a while, before turning the lights off. He heard his friends whispering a little, but they clearly believed him to be sleeping and didn’t want to wake him so they swiftly desisted. He lay thinking about the events of the night. The fact that Voldemort had secretly been behind it all. How they'd come across a teenage remnant of him. Had destroying the diary affected his return? _Would it be foolish to hope I've achieved my goal? Changed things for the better?_ It probably was. Foolish. He didn't know what happened last time, whether Harry had destroyed the diary then, but he imagined maybe. Ginny had survived, and the petrifications had stopped, after all.

_Had Dobby known what was happening? Or known something at least? Was that was he was so sure Harry shouldn't be at the school. What had he seen? What had father said in front of him, let slip?_ Draco wracked his brain, trying to remember exactly what it was Dobby had said, that night here in the Hospital Wing, after that Quidditch match. Vague warnings? Or something specific, which he didn't pick up on the significance of at the time? Maybe he should try and ask the elf what he knows?

During his wonderings, he was suddenly reminded of a memory from the summer. When he asked his father about the Chamber of Secrets, and he shut him down. _That bastard. He fucking lied to my face, didn't he? He knew what the diary would do, or more that he claimed at least, and he was planning even back then_. Well, that was a worrying thought. An upsetting thought. Draco didn't want to believe that his father had consciously and deliberately allowed a child to be possessed by a monster, and set a killer creature on a school ( _his_ school), but it seemed like that might be true. He wouldn't be able to confront him until summer now (unless he went home for Easter, which he never usually did). To be honest, he didn't really want to. He didn't want to find out how guilty he was. It might be foolish, but he'd like to keep some naïveté, some hope, some benefit of the doubt.

Eventually he must have fallen asleep, as he awoke to find it was morning. Hermione looked to be making her own bed, and Harry was eating breakfast. Both Weasleys were still asleep.

"How you feeling?" Harry asked.

"Fine. You?"

"Yeah, okay. Yesterday all still seems so…"

"I know," Draco replied, saving him from having to find the right word.

"You lied to them about my, you know, _Parseltongue_." He whispered the last word.

"Yeah. I didn't think you'd want everyone knowing. You don't mind, do you?"

"It's fine."

"I don't think you should have lied," Hermione interrupted. "You make it seem like Harry's Parseltongue is something he should be ashamed of. And now we're all involved in your lie. What if they find out?"

"If they find out, I'm sure they'll understand. It's not like it makes a difference to them whether or not Harry's a Parselmouth."

"I agree with Draco," Ron added, surprising them all, as they hadn't realised he was awake. "Dumbledore would just make a drama of it, and Snape would use it as another excuse to point the blame at Harry. Plus my parents would probably freak out. And no offence Draco, but I'm not sure what your father would do with the knowledge."

"None taken."

Pomprey declared them all fit to leave the hospital wing. She had tried to persuade Ginny to stay a bit longer but the girl wasn't having any of it. She disappeared off as soon as possible, not giving any of them a chance to talk to her. Ron tried to catch her up, but gave up and came back to wait for the rest of them.

"She's gone. She's quick when she wants to be. We'll have to try and find her later. Mum probably blames me for not noticing something was up with her as it is. Shall we head over to breakfast?"

"We just had breakfast," Hermione pointed out.

"Well, we could have more breakfast. It's too early to go to class."

"We might as well get the drama from the student body about yesterday over sooner rather than later," Draco added, shrugging.

Drama was what they got. As soon as they entered, the Hall went quiet. Everyone stared. The Gryffindors started making quite a ruckus as the others approached the table. The Slytherins were considerably more restrained, but they looked at Draco, clearly eager for gossip, as he headed over.

"Draco, what's this I hear about you and the Gryffindorks getting into a battle with the Heir of Slytherin yesterday?" Pansy asked.

"Where did you hear that?"

"Never mind that, is it true?"

"Approximately."

"So who was the Heir? Was it secretly you all along?"

"Was it Potter?" Blaise asked sarcastically.

"Was it that Mudblood, Granger?" Crabbe asked, seemingly genuinely.

"No. There wasn't a Heir. It was… a cursed object."

"What?"

"I can't tell you more than that. I've been sworn to secrecy."

"Boo." Pansy complained.

"So did you not even fight anybody then?" Blaise asked.

"Harry and I fought a Basilisk." That peaked their interest.

"A Basilisk!" Pansy gasped.

"What's a Basilisk?" Goyle muttered.

"A giant fucking killer snake. Turns out that was what was petrifying people."

"Makes sense. Being Slytherin's Monster and all…" Theo commented.

"So you killed Slytherin's pet Basilisk? And you call yourself a Slytherin!" Blaise exclaimed.

"What's so Slytherin about standing back and letting yourself get killed by a monstrous reptile, just because it may have once belonged to a wizard who founded your school? That sounds like a loyal Hufflepuff thing to do to me…"

"Fair enough. Did it put up a good fight?"

"One hell of a fight. The fucker might not even be dead. I'm not a Gryffindor either, so I didn't stick around to make sure I'd slayed the beast, I got out whilst I was ahead."

"Rescuing Weasley's sister in the process, I've heard. Are you her hero now?" Pansy asked. "Should we expect to see her fawning over you?"

"I imagine she'll assign the credit to Harry."

"Not jealous of the Boy-Who-Lived are we?"

"Harry can have the credit. I was just along for the story."

"And as interesting as this story is, shouldn't we be heading to Defence?" Daphne intercepted. She'd been amongst the people sat around, pretending not to be hanging off every word.

"Well, considering that Lockhart is by now, hopefully on his way to Azkaban, I don't think we need to worry about punctuality."

"WHAT!?" That surprised the crowd.

"The bastard attacked us. He tried to Obliviate us. Then knocked a tunnel down on us, though that was mainly through sheer incompetence."

"And you think you'll be able to prove it? What if Dumbledore vouches for him, to save the bother of finding yet another Defence teacher?"

"Well, considering the fact my father was around yesterday, and he heard all about it, I wouldn't put money on Lockhart's chances of worming his way out of it." There was a part of Draco that wanted to cringe as he said it. It was too much like what he would have said first time around, when he believed his father was all-powerful. He was super-pissed at the man, but didn't doubt his way to throw his name around. Father would assure Lockhart got what was coming to him. And if he didn't, then maybe Mother would step in, and Lockhart would face some kind of even worse fate.

"The good-old Malfoy justice?" Blaise asked.

"You think he should go with some Zabini style justice?" Pansy joked.

Blaise didn't get a chance to snark back because Snape swooped over towards them.

"And why are you lot not heading to class? I do not want to hear that you have cost Slytherin points from being tardy."

"We have Defence Sir," Draco replied. "I assume after yesterday that Lockhart will not be teaching us." Snape frowned when Draco didn't refer to Lockhart as 'Professor', but didn't correct him.

"Has anyone told you not to go to class?"

"No Sir."

"Then why, tell me, do you think you are not required to go to class?"

"Please don't tell me Lockhart's still teaching."

"Alas, no. It appears we have lost another Defence teacher. The Headmaster is looking for a replacement. But for now, the other members of faculty have kindly agreed to supervise the class."

"Who's supervising our lesson?"

"I have better things to remember than other teachers' schedules. I can only say it is not me. Here's a suggestion; why don't you all actually go to class, and maybe you'll find out."

It was Binns. Fucking Binns. Of all the teachers in this school. It appeared he'd not entirely grasped what he was meant to be teaching. He ended up giving them a long and boring lecture on some Goblin war or other, which was supposedly about how wizards defended themselves but was unrecognisable from his normal lectures (or at least, if like most of the class, you didn't listen to his lectures in the first place).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long. Didn't get much writing done in my quiet week, then had a really busy week last week.  
> Hope you like the chapter. Was quite difficult to write. I wasn't sure how much information they should reveal in their retelling, and I wasn't sure what to do about Lucius, as it's been pointed out that if the story Lucius spun last chapter was true, then there's some plot holes. If there's plot holes I've left, please tell me.  
> Thanks to everyone for your ongoing support, kudos and comments.  
> There'll be at least one more chapter in this story before the end, maybe more. I'll get it written as soon as (but can't promise how punctual).


	17. Chapter 17

After a brief chat at lunchtime, that evening after classes was the first time Draco got to properly talk with his friends. They'd not really talked about everything that had happened the day before.

"Well shit, did yesterday really happen?" he asked as he walked into the Room of Requirement. His friends were already there waiting. "Did we really fight a fucking angsty teenage spectre of the Dark fucking Lord?"

"And a Basilisk," Harry pointed out.

"And, on a much less terrifying scale, our asshole Defence teacher," Ron added. That produced a slight chuckle.

"But seriously, what even was yesterday?" Draco added after a brief pause. "It was crazy, even by our standards. And since I met you guys, my life hasn't been exactly normal." _Has my life ever been normal? And which meeting am I referring to?_

"At least it's over now," Ron commiserated.

"It's not over!" Harry protested. "Sure, we defeated him this time, but the real Voldemort's still out there somewhere!"

"And Justin and Colin, and Nearly-Headless Nick and Mrs Norris are still petrified!" Hermione added.

"Plus of course, there's still the Basilisk to think about…" Draco mumbled.

"What! You said it was dealt with! You said it was probably dead!" Hermione yelled.

"I said it might be dead. It might be. But do you think we should maybe go make sure? Dobby probably still has that rooster after all."

"But the Basilisk isn't going to hurt anybody now Riddle's no longer controlling it!" Harry protested.

"You going to take its word for it?"

"Wait, so you weren't joking when you suggested Harry go back and talk to it again?" Ron asked.

"Well I was, but he did manage to talk with it. It was probably the only reason we got out of there alive."

"Shit. I don't know what we would have done if you didn't come back. I don't know if I said it yesterday, but thank you, all of you. For saving Ginny. I know I sometimes moan about her, but she's my sister, and I don't know what I'd do if something had happened to her."

"It's alright. And she's okay now," Draco reassured.

"But is she? You saw her this morning. She wouldn't talk to me, to anyone. This year must have been awful for her. And she'd been so looking forwards to coming to Hogwarts. How did I not notice? She's my sister, and she was possessed by Voldemort and I didn't notice!"

"It's not your fault, Ron," Hermione told him. "Don't think about that. What we can do is be there for her now."

"But how can I, if she keeps avoiding me?"

"She can't avoid you all the time. Plus, you can encourage her friends to be there for her," Draco suggested.

"What friends? Now I think about it, I've not really seen her with any friends."

"Is she not friends with, I don't know… I thought she was perhaps friends with Lovegood? And maybe Longbottom?"

"No, what!? Loony Lovegood? I don't think they've spoken in years? And what do you mean about Neville? Have you seen them together?"

"Oh, no I think I just saw her talking with them once. I just thought they might be friends." _They were friends last time, right? I thought they were the back-up trio to Harry, Ron and Hermione? And since when did Ron call Lovegood 'Loony'?_

"Who's Loony Lovegood?" Harry asked.

" _Luna_ Lovegood," Draco corrected.

"She's a girl who lives not too far from us. She's a bit odd. I think she's a Ravenclaw now. She and Ginny used to be friends a bit growing up," Ron explained.

"And you call her Loony?" Hermione asked angrily.

"Everyone does. As I said, she's a bit odd."

"That's no excuse."

Draco had to admit, he agreed with Hermione. Sure, in his old life, he'd joined in with the cruel nickname. He couldn't particularly recall any incidents, but he wouldn't be surprised if he'd picked on her if the opportunity arose. But he'd got to know her a bit whilst she'd been held captive in his basement (and what an insane sentence that was), and formed a respect for the girl. _Well, it sounds like I need to make sure Luna and Ginny become friends again then._ It would be good for both of them.

Later on, when they were sat, supposedly working on their homework (as surprisingly the teachers were acting like today was just another day; didn't Dumbledore normally cancel everything when Harry had performed his heroics? Maybe it was because this had happened much earlier in the year than usual?), Harry suddenly stood up.

"We need to go back down in the Chamber!"

"Do we?" Draco questioned, unenthusiastically. "I thought we were going to go with ignoring the Basilisk that may or may not be roaming around down there for now?"

"I left my cloak down there!" _Sigh. Of course he did._

"Is it a good idea for us to risk our lives going to get it?"

"I can't leave it! It's okay. I'll go on my own…"

"No you won't. Hmph. Fine, I'll go with you. But I want it on the record, that this was not my idea."

"I'm coming too!" Ron added. "I didn't get to go into the Chamber last time. I'll come with you this time." They all looked to Hermione.

"Fine. I'll come too. But like Draco, I want it acknowledged that I think this is a ridiculous idea."

"So where are we actually going?" Draco asked, after they had all stood up dramatically, only to pause uncertainly before leaving the room. "Are we off back to Myrtle's bathroom, or to try and find where we came out in the dungeons?"

"The bathroom will be quicker," Ron pointed out. "We won't have to walk down all those stairs, if we take the pipe."

"Fair enough."

"Oh, it's you!" Myrtle gasped, as they entered her bathroom. "I thought you were dead. You went down the pipe and didn't come back." She looked rather disappointed that they weren't.

"No. Still alive. Just left by a different route," Draco informed her. "Harry, do your thing." Harry frowned at him slightly, but hissed and summoned the entrance.

The pipe ride was slightly more enjoyable now it seemed slightly less perilous. Not totally peril-less of course. There was always the chance the Basilisk was waiting at the bottom to kill them, or at least petrify them. But at least they knew the pipes came out somewhere.

They landed then set off down the tunnel again. It seemed weird, it was only yesterday that they were here before. It felt longer ago. They passed the caved-in tunnel and continued on, reaching the entrance to the Chamber itself. They paused. The Basilisk might well be behind this wall.

"Maybe we should all close our eyes once you've opened the door?" Hermione suggested. "Harry, you could try and speak to the Basilisk, and see if it replies. Warn it not to look in our direction?"

"Is the cloak definitely through here?" Ron asked. "You didn't drop it beforehand?"

"No, we had it on when we entered the Chamber. It got thrown off as we were trying to help Ginny." _As you went running headless into danger without considering your surroundings or thinking of a plan…_ "Well, here goes nothing…"

They all closed their eyes and listened to the sibilant hiss Harry made, and the sound of stone moving. Draco felt a slight draft hit his face as the Chamber opened. There was silence for a few seconds, then Harry started hissing again. He sounded… cautious? _Can hissing sound cautious?_ After a moment, there was a quiet noise in reply. Hisses went back and forth between Harry and, presumably, the Basilisk, as the rest of them waited nervously. Clearly the Basilisk wasn't dead, but neither were they. Not yet anyway.

"She says we can enter," Harry announced eventually.

" _She?_ "

"Yeah. She says her name is _Hsssssssssshssss._ Oh, wait, that doesn't really translate into English."

"So you two were making small-talk whilst we were stood here thinking we were about to be devoured by a giant snake?"

"I wouldn't say small-talk… I had to be polite. After all, we did fight her yesterday. And she could easily kill us."

"But she won't?"

"No. She promised. She says she's going to shut her eyes. Well, eye. She's still injured from yesterday. You blinded her left eye."

"I was trying to stop her from killing us!"

"And she understands that. But maybe, Draco, you should stand at the back. I don't think she's all that fond of you." _Well, that's ironic. Slytherin's snake preferring the three Gryffindors to the Slytherin._

Cautiously, they followed Harry into the Chamber, keeping their eyes squinted in case the snake was lying or Harry had misunderstood. But the Basilisk was sat there, near the middle of the Chamber, crouched quite passively, face towards them and right eye closed. The left was a bit of a mess. You could see on her jaw where Draco's spell had blasted a fang out, and there were signs of injury and spell damage across her body. None of it looked terminal though. The left eye was the most graphic injury visible.

Ron and Hermione were visibly shocked by her appearance, having never seen the gigantic creature before. They hung back slightly as Harry walked closer. He hissed at the snake again, and she hissed back, nodding her head slightly in what, presumably, was a greeting. They all nervously nodded back, not wanting to offend.

"Erm… hi," Draco muttered looking up at the Basilisk. "I'm sorry I hurt you yesterday. I was just trying to protect my friends." Harry started hissing, seemingly translating for him.

"She says she'll forgive you this once, considering you are in the House of her Salazar."

"Well, I very much hope I won't ever have to fight her again."

"She hopes so too," Harry replied, after acting as translator once more.

"I don't mean to be rude, but shouldn't we be finding your cloak and heading back soon?" Hermione asked. "It's nearly time for dinner. We could come back another day."

" _Hsssssssssshssss_ says she'd like that."

"We really need to come up with a name the rest of us can actually say…" Ron muttered.

"I'll put it on the to-do list," Draco replied. "Accio Harry's cloak!" Nothing happened. "Huh."

"What was that spell?" Harry asked.

"A summoning spell. But it didn't work."

"Maybe you did it wrong?" Hermione suggested, starting looking around for the cloak.

"I didn't…" Draco replied, more to himself, confused.

It didn't take long for them to find the cloak, lying on the floor fairly near the entrance. It wasn't even restricted by anything, so there was no reason for it not to have come when he summoned it. This was a curiosity to think more on later.

They waved goodbye to the Basilisk and headed back out, taking the staircase they'd used yesterday. Draco took care to remember where it was it came out; that might be useful knowledge in future.

Talk was again all about the events of yesterday over dinner. But by breakfast, there was new news. It wasn't producing the drama it perhaps deserved, but talk was getting around from those with a copy of the Daily Prophet nonetheless.

**SIRIUS BLACK FOUND INNOCENT**

_Well, shit, I've changed something at least. Let's hope it turns out for the better._

"He was innocent. All this time he was suffering in Azkaban, and he was innocent," Harry reflected, as they discussed the news that evening. "He didn't betray my parents."

"No. And at least he's free now. Justice was found eventually."

"But 10 years. For 10 years everyone thought he did. Hated him. 10 years he could have been in my life, but wasn't."

"You can't change the past. You can only change the future." _Unless you get hoodwinked into an insane scheme by fucking centaurs…_

"Do you think he'll want to know me? Do you think I should try and get in touch?"

"I'm sure he will do."

"Maybe you should give him a little while first though?" Draco suggested. "This can't all have been easy for him." _Will he be as off his rocker after a decade in Azkaban as Bellatrix was when she got out?_

"He might well get in contact with you," Ron added.

Sure enough, the next morning Harry received a letter over breakfast. It was the weekend, so they all went to the Room of Requirement to read it.

_**Dear Harry,** _

__

_**I don't know how much you know. What people have told you. How much of that was true. But my name is Sirius Black, and I am your godfather. Hopefully you've heard by now that I'm innocent. I'm finally free, and I've heard that I have you to thank for that. That it was you that found Wormtail. That it's because of you that that traitor is now suffering in Azkaban like I was. I cannot tell you how grateful I am.** _

_**I know this must all be overwhelming for you. I can't imagine what you might have grown up hearing about me. But if you would consider replying to me, I'd be overjoyed. I hate how much of your life I've missed. I know I've been a terrible godfather so far, but if you would permit me, I'd like to change that. Your father was my best friend, and I hope I can finally make right on the promise I made him, and look out for his son.** _

_**You probably don't need me. I'm sure you're doing wonderfully on your own. You managed to catch Wormtail, and I've heard how you're the star of the Gryffindor quidditch team. I couldn't be more proud. I wouldn't blame you if you don't want anything to do with me. But if you did want to write back, that would be amazing.** _

__

_**Sirius Black** _

_Well, that's one hell of a letter._ Black sounded very desperate, but that was understandable really. He seemed to be attributing all the credit for catching Pettigrew to Harry not Draco, but Draco wasn't going to hold that against him just now.

"He thinks I wouldn't want to know him!" Harry exclaimed.

"Well, he has just spent a decade in Azkaban. That can't do great things for a guy's self-confidence," Ron argued.

"Do you think he'll let me live with him? I could get away from my Aunt and Uncle's!" _Well, if this summer didn't give the impression there's something not right in that household, this certainly does. Harry wanting to go live with a man he can't recall ever meeting, who's just got out from a decade in prison._

"I'm not so sure that's a good idea," Hermione suggested cautiously. "He has just spent a decade in Azkaban…"

"So?" Harry questioned, angrily.

"Well, he might not be… in the best place… for looking after a child."

"I'm not a child!"

"Well, technically you are. We all are." [ _Well, except me..._ _?_ ] "He might not even have anywhere to live yet."

"He should be eligible to inherit the Black Estate now." Mother seemed to think Sirius had done even in the timeline where he was an escaped convict. Now he was acquitted, he definitely should. That's why she didn't want Sirius to be found innocent; she had hoped Draco would be able to inherit it. "There'll be at least some property in that."

"You see Hermione? That shouldn't be a problem."

"You probably should at least meet the man before you go asking to live with him."

"But when? We're here all the time, and I really don't want to have to go back to the Dursleys if I don't have to. You don't know what it's like."

"They locked him in his bedroom!" Ron exclaimed.

"Well, why don't we go talk to McGonagall? She's your Head of House. She might be able to give you some advice, and arrange for you to be able to meet with Sirius?" Draco suggested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You wait weeks for a chapter, now there's two in a matter of days. That's my fluctuating productivity for you...  
> It's reasonably short, but thought I'd post what I have now rather than leaving you hanging. Still another chapter or two at least left in this year


	18. Chapter 18

"It's understandable that you want to meet your godfather," McGonagall began, "But you have to understand that he's just spent the last decade in Azkaban, and that will have taken its toll. He might not be ready for meeting you yet."

"But how am I going to get to know him, if I can never meet him?" Harry complained. "We've lost so much time already, when we should have been together!"

"I'm not saying you can never meet him, just not quite yet. You said he'd written to you. Why not start with a written correspondence. I'll see if I can arrange for you to perhaps meet up in the Easter holidays, but I'm not promising anything."

"Thank you Professor."

"My pleasure Harry. I'm glad to see you all are recovered from your adventure the other day."

So Harry wrote back to Sirius Black. He asked for advice on what to write, but only he saw the finished letter.

Draco received a letter from his mother. First, she expressed her relief that Draco was uninjured, and urged him try not to get involved in any more Gryffindor hijinks in future. She also passed on his father's regards. The phrasing implied that his father was trying once again to make an apology, but hadn't told his mother about what he'd done, and didn't want her to know that he was trying to apologise (as then she'd ask what he was apologising for). It appeared Sirius Black's pardon had concerned her. She warned him to be careful of him; that the Black family had always carried the tendency for madness, and ten years in Azkaban wouldn't have done his mental state any good. He might well be suspicious of Draco, she told him, and may even try to poison Harry against him.

She might well be right; about the distrust at least. Harry got a reply from Sirius but didn't tell them too much about it.

"What did he say?"

"Oh, not too much. Same as before really. Asking about how things are going at school..." Draco got the vibe from his tone that Harry was being intentionally evasive.

"He disapproves of you being friends with me, doesn't he?"

"He's just… protective. You can't blame him for being a little over-paranoid when he's just spent a decade falsely accused in Azkaban."

"Are you suggesting there's a good reason to be paranoid about me?"

"No! It's just that… well, you are a Slytherin."

"And so of course that makes me evil."

"No. But your house is kind of associated with Voldemort. And from what he's said so far, it sounds like Sirius didn't get on well with Slytherin's at school." _Well, if Black was friends with Harry's dad at school, and Harry's dad was enemies with Snape, it's not hard to guess that's at least one Slytherin Black doesn't like…_

"So you're just going to go along with him stereotyping me?"

"No. I've told him you're my friend, and that I trust you. Hey, why don't you write to him too? I mean, aren't you like cousins or something? What better way to show him who you are than reaching out?"

So reluctantly, Draco wrote to Black. He didn't write a long letter, just a brief introduction and vague greeting. He figured he should be on at least half-decent terms with Black, or at least not antagonistic. He wasn't sure exactly what Black's significance was in the original timeline, but he seemed to have the biggest change in the current one so far, so he was a bit of an unknown quantity. It would not be wise to make enemies of someone who could prove to be important. Particularly someone who quickly seemed to be becoming close to Harry.

A day or two passed, and Draco didn't get a reply.

What did arrive though, was Valentine's Day. And an army of dwarves dressed as Cupid, which Lockhart had apparently ordered before his arrest. Had he not remembered this happening last time, Draco might have been suspicious that Lockhart organised this after his arrest to sabotage/annoy the school. But alas, it was merely pure idiocy and what he ridiculously mistook for a good idea. It caused a minor irritation/inconvenience for the school (though Draco did hear a few girls saying it was "cute" and hoping that Lockhart would be coming back soon).

Dumbledore didn't seem to be making any progress on recruiting a replacement. They'd had a Defence class covered by Professor Babbling, which wasn't great, but was a vast improvement on Binn's teaching. _Surely Dumbledore'll find someone soon? Maybe someone he hired last time?_ Who had taught Defence? Well, there was Carrow in seventh year. _I can't see him being hired anytime soon…_ Umbridge in what, fifth year? She wasn't really a likely candidate either, not unless Dumbledore was really desperate. Moody in… fourth year. _Oh Merlin, I hope he doesn't hire him._ Never mind whatever it was the man had done at the end of the year to get himself fired (Draco had never quite learnt what, but he thought it was something to do with Harry ending up at the Dark Lord's resurrection, which didn't make a right lot of sense, because wasn't Moody supposedly one of the Order of the Phoenix?), but the man had turned him into a ferret. A fucking ferret!

Who else had there been? Oh, right, sixth year Snape had finally got the job. But considering the 'curse' on the position, Dumbledore was unlikely to risk his prize spy at this stage in the game. And third year? Who did they have in third year? _Erm… oh shit, the werewolf!_ Draco would think that surely Dumbledore wouldn't hire a dark creature like that again, but if he did last time, why wouldn't he this time? Particularly as, reluctantly with the benefit of hindsight, Draco had to admit it was a half-competent teacher, at least compared to a lot of the other jokes who had taught the position.

So it seemed, there weren't any great choices from the list of options Draco knew about. The werewolf was probably the most likely hire, but Draco hoped he wouldn't be.

Eventually Draco got a reply from Black (whilst Harry had exchanged multiple letters with the man in the intervening time).

_**Malfoy,** _

_**Moony insisted that it was rude that I hadn't replied to your letter, and that I should at least give you the courtesy, considering we are family, and you are one of Harry's friends. Well, for the first point, that's not really a good thing. I'm sure you're proud to be descended from the Blacks, considering our precious blood purity. I don't know how much your mother has told you about our beloved relatives, but let me assure you, there are very few you should be pleased to be related to. And as for the second point, well I don't like it, but I guess I must accept for now that for some reason Harry trusts you. Do not make him regret it. One notable thing about the Black line is our temper, and you do not want to meet mine. Believe me on this, you betray Harry, and I will make you regret it. I may have not been a good godfather to him so far, but I plan to make up for lost time.** _

_**Regards,** _

_**Sirius Black** _

_Well…_

_What can I even say about that!?_

Draco felt Black came across as ridiculously childish and petty in his letter. _I have to put up with my friends being childish, and they are actual children. I do not have time to deal with a man-child!_ If this was how Black was going to act the whole time, then Draco was going to rather regret getting the man pardoned.

_And who the fuck is Moony?_ Draco decided to ask Harry about that (he didn't show him the actual letter, as he felt that was sinking to Black's level of pettiness).

"Oh, he's one of Sirius and my Dad's school friends. Apparently they've just got back in touch now he knows Sirius is innocent. I've not heard from him myself yet, but Sirius says that Moony feels guilty for not being able to be around during my childhood. He says he's very good at feeling guilty for stuff. Sirius is trying to persuade him he doesn't blame him for not knowing he was innocent."

"Ah right. Moony? I don't think I've heard that name before. Is he Muggleborn?"

"Erm, I'm not too sure. But Moony's not actually his name. I think Sirius said his real name is actually Lupin…"

" _ **Remus Lupin!?**_ "

"Erm… yeah, I think so…" Harry replied, looking a bit shocked by Draco's sudden energy.

_Black's friends with the werewolf!? Well, actually, considering it was somehow involved in whatever happened when Black turned up then escaped the school at the end of third year, I guess it makes some kind of sense. I guess he must know what it is? I mean, he calls it Moony, for Merlin's sake! Either that, or he's ridiculously naïve! But he probably hasn't told Harry. Should I tell him?_

Draco decided not to say anything for now. He should think about, and research the situation. Slytherins don't run in.

He wrote to mother, asking her what she knew of the man. She replied, saying that he was a friend of Sirius Black at school. Quieter than Black and Potter, she seemed to recall. From a rather unremarkable family, and had come to very little himself. She'd not heard much of him in years, and from the little she had heard, it sounded like he was all but destitute. She advised Draco that if he was thinking of continuing pursuing relationships with Gryffindors, then that would be one unlikely to be fruitful and one she was strongly advise against. She didn't mention or hint at him being a werewolf though. She mustn't know.

The school year was floating past surprisingly calmly. There was a weird atmosphere of tranquillity around, now that the issue of Slytherin's Heir had been dealt with (even though there were students still petrified, wherever it was the school had stashed them; the mandrakes were maturing but wouldn't be ready for at least a few more weeks). Draco played in a rather unremarkable quidditch match against Ravenclaw (catching the snitch relatively swiftly and without dramatics).

Just before the Easter holidays, Harry happily burst into the Room of Requirement.

"McGonagall says I can meet Sirius next week! He's going to be staying at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, and she's arranged for me to go meet him there on Tuesday!" Draco offered pleased words along with his friends, but couldn't deny he was secretly a bit worried. He was even more worried when the day came and Harry returned, announcing that he was going to go live with Sirius.

"Are you sure?" Draco asked cautiously.

"Yeah! I know you guys had some concerns, but look, I've been writing to him for weeks now, and we've met each other! He says he's looking into buying an apartment. He's inherited a house, but claims he's not living there over his dead body. We're going to meet again next week to discuss things more!"

"Can I come with you to meet him? We are related after all…"

"Oh, well, I guess so. If you can get permission from McGonagall, or well, I guess Snape for you."

Draco went to ask Snape.

"And why would you want to go meet _Black_?" the man practically spat out.

"Well, we are family."

"I'm not so sure your parents would be best pleased to hear you referring to that man as such. And speaking of, you would have to get their permission to leave the school and meet with him. Normally it would not be allowed at all, but seeing as the rules have been bent for _Potter_ , there's no specific reason you shouldn't be allowed to go as well. Why you would want to is another question."

So Draco wrote to mother. And she insisted on coming too. At least she wasn't bringing father. It would be nice to see her, he supposed. He just wasn't sure how well a meeting of him, mother, Sirius Black and Harry was going to go. Hopefully everyone would be leaving un-maimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is maybe a bit short, and probably a bit bitty, but I'm trying to get second year wrapped up. Still at least one more chapter to go though.  
> Also, I just wanted to point out- I know Draco is being pretty judgy about Lupin right now, but I imagine he doesn't have the highest opinion of werewolves after having to spend time with Greyback etc. He will be getting to know Lupin better at some point.


	19. Chapter 19

Whilst waiting for that frightful meeting, they had something else to discuss; their subject choices for third year. Hermione was taking it super-seriously, but also seemed to want to take absolutely every subject. Harry and Ron seemed more interested in trying to give up core subjects. Harry was moaning about not being able to drop potions, which was saying something, considering surely the lessons mustn't be as bad for him this time with Draco supporting him rather than antagonising him (on reflection, original Draco must have been a bit of an annoying little shit to Potter). Ron made a fair argument for being able to drop Defence Against the Dark Arts, considering the teaching quality.

"What do you think to Care of Magical Creatures?" Harry asked.

"Charlie always loved it," Ron commented.

"It does sound interesting," Hermione remarked, flipping through a leaflet.

"We could all do it together," Harry suggested. "Draco, what do you think?"

"Aw, hell no!" They all looked at him, surprised. "Oh, I just… don't fancy it really. I think we get enough danger, without taking a class to study dangerous creatures."

"Magical creatures," Hermione stated.

"What?"

"It's magical creatures, not dangerous."

"Are the two mutually exclusive? Look, I'm not stopping you guys, but I just don't think it's for me." _I_ _don't_ _much_ _fancy_ _being_ _mauled_ _by_ _a_ _hippogriff_ _again_ …

"So what subjects do you fancy taking then?" Harry asked.

"I'm thinking maybe Divination. Sounds interesting." _It's_ _something_ _new_ , _and_ _might_ _give_ _me_ _an_ _excuse_ _to_ _pass_ _off_ _some_ _future_ _knowledge_.

They kept chatting about the relative merits of the different subjects. Draco was feeling he might do all different elective subjects this time round. Might as well. So rather than Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy, maybe Divination and Ancient Runes? Hermione was trying to persuade him to take Muggle Studies too. He'd always thought that was a ridiculous joke subject, but maybe it would actually be useful, or at least give a good impression? His father would have kittens, but quite frankly, that made the subject more appealing considering how Draco was annoyed with the man currently. Why Hermione wanted to take the subject herself was another question. Surely that was one subject she should be able to easily rule out (since she seemed to be struggling to narrow them down). She was Muggleborn! Why would she need to learn about Muggles?

What had Hermione taken first time round? All of Potter and his pals were definitely in Care of Magical Creatures. She'd been in his Arithmancy class; he remembered being annoyed by her love of answering any questions Professor Vector asked. And wasn't there rumours of Hermione storming out of Divination? Maybe he should encourage her not to take it this time (although, perhaps she would keep the class entertaining, if Trelawney turned out to be a bore?)

Draco had a good idea of his subject choices by the time of the Hogsmeade meet-up. Ron and Harry still weren't sure (Harry was planning on asking Sirius for advice). Hermione still wanted to take everything.

Harry and Draco met with Snape in the Entrance Hall, and he walked them down to the gates of the school. The walk was rather awkward. Draco's mother met them at the gate, and after brief pleasantries being passed between the adults, Snape made a quick exit. Considering the supposed animosity between Snape and Sirius Black, it was probably a good thing Black wasn't meeting them at the gate (or maybe he just hadn't been invited to; when Harry had met him last week, it sounded like McGonagall had walked Harry all the way to the Three Broomsticks). Draco's mother hugged him before holding out a hand to Harry.

"Mr Potter, it's wonderful to finally meet you!" she purred, putting on her most charming smile. "I'm Narcissa Malfoy. I've heard so much about you from Draco. I'm so glad he's found such good friends." Draco struggled to keep a neutral face against what was clearly manipulation and plotting (the agenda of which, he wasn't quite sure). Whether this false nicety was better than honest insulting, he wasn't certain. At least Harry didn't seem to be taking the act as anything other than genuine. He looked nervous, but pleased, at the reception, taking her hand in what, based on the subtly impressed look on mother's face, must have been a firm handshake.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mrs… erm… Lady? Malfoy…" he stuttered back, getting caught up on what title to call her by. "Please call me Harry."

"And please call me Narcissa. It saves us the boring formality of titles. Now, come along boys, we don't want to leave Sirius waiting, do we? It's been so long since I've seen my cousin. I'm quite looking forward to this reunion."

Apparently the feeling wasn't mutual. Sirius Black was not expecting Narcissa and Draco, if his reaction at their arrival was anything to go by. As soon as they entered the room Sirius had booked at the Three Broomsticks, Black jumped to his feet, pointing his wand at them with a crazy look in his eyes.

"Now, Sirius, is that really how you greet family?" Narcissa asked, seemingly nonchalant (though Draco didn't doubt that the wand she was almost certainly gripping in her pocket would be pointing right at the man). Sirius only stood down when he spotted Harry behind them, looking shocked at his Godfather's reaction.

"What are _you_ doing here?"

"Well, you know Draco's friends with Harry, and he wanted to come with him to meet you too. We are family after all. And I thought it'd be nice for me to come too. Have a little reunion."

"Because you're so keen to see me again. It's not because you have some other agenda, is it?"

"Oh Sirius. You never really were very trusting, were you?"

"I've had good reason not to be. And are you claiming that you trust me?"

"True, true. And okay, to be honest, then no, not fully. We've had our differences in the past, and you have just spent a decade in a hellhole. I wasn't going to let my son meet with you alone."

"Erm, I wouldn't have been alone. You may have temporarily forgotten about us, mother, but Harry and I are both here too," Draco pointed out.

"I know you are dear. Why don't we all go sit down. If that's alright with you, of course, cousin?"

"Fine," Black muttered reluctantly.

Soon they were all sat down, sipping drinks delivered by a House Elf, and starring at each other awkwardly.

"So… Harry, how have you been?" Sirius asked. "Enjoying the Easter holidays?"

"Yes. Well, except Hermione keeps insisting we need to study. And we've got to decide which subjects we want to take next year."

"Oh yes! Third year electives! Your father and I basically just picked ours out of a hat. No wait, it was a pair of underpants- long story. Though we ended up taking Ghoul Studies as a bet."

"I don't recall seeing Ghoul Studies on the list of options…"

"The teacher for that subject… left… in 1980 and they never replaced him," Narcissa informed them. The awkwardness in the air made a resurgence.

"We're thinking we might take Divination," Harry announced.

"Ha, that should be a laugh!" Sirius replied, "Trelawny was hired after we left, but I heard she's totally nutty."

"Draco, you're not thinking of taking Divination are you?" mother asked.

"Yes, I am. I think it'll be interesting. And knowing the future could come in handy."

The afternoon passed with no further wands being drawn, even if the conversation was stilted and awkward at times. Draco saw that as a success. Narcissa said she'd walk the boys back up to the school, but she needed to have a quick word with Sirius on her own first.

"Why don't you just wait downstairs, boys. We won't be a minute."

Instead Draco and Harry hovered outside the door, trying to eavesdrop. If the adults didn't want them to overhear, then they would have put up better privacy wards.

"So why are you really here, Narcissa? Don't give me some family reunion bullshit. I know just what side of the war your family was on. If you're plotting something about Harry, trust me, I'll make you regret it."

"Good."

"Good?"

"I told you I was here to look out for my son. There's nothing a parent wouldn't do for their child. If it's true what I've heard, about you wanting to become Harry's guardian, then it's important you learn that."

"Because you care for the welfare of the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Because I care about my son. And he is friends with Harry Potter, whether or not I initially expected, or liked that. If you mean what you say, about being Harry's parent, then you need to accept that. Harry and Draco are friends. I won't stand you trying to poison my son's friend against him. If one day they decide to go their own way, so be it, but that's their choice."

"So you saying you husband isn't trying to interfere? That he doesn't disapprove of their friendship?"

"I will not let _anyone_ interfere with my son's welfare and happiness. Lucius knows that."

"But will he listen?" There was a brief silence.

"Goodbye cousin." Narcissa finished, ignoring the question in a pleasant but no-nonsense tone. "I have to be going. I imagine I'll be seeing you again soon." Draco and Harry swiftly made their way downstairs before the door could open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, a long wait for a short chapter, but it's better than nothing I guess...  
> Wasn't sure how to write this chapter and do justice to the characters (hope I didn't disappoint too badly). I think next chapter might be the last for this story (depending on how long it ends up being). There's just a couple more things that need to be wrapped up before second year ends.


	20. Chapter 20

Draco's mother walked them back to the school gates. Apparently Hagrid had been sent to meet them and let them back in. This time the adults exchanged zero words, just a vague suspicious glare. Once the boys had said goodbye to Narcissa, they headed back to the school.

"So that could have gone worse," Draco commented, once they were back in the school. "Nobody cursed each other."

"That discussion between Sirius and your mother seemed a bit tense though," Harry agreed.

"Eh, for a Black reunion, that was almost certainly tame. I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for, joining the family."

"We'll be family!" Harry beamed, in a voice suggesting that he was surprised but pleased by the statement.

"Yes, we will."

"Speaking of family, do you think what your mum said was true?"

"Which thing she said?"

"That there's nothing a parent wouldn't do for their child?"

"Well, I guess not quite every parent. And maybe not _nothing._ But parents want to protect their children, don't they?"

"Well, I don't know, do I?"

"Yes you do. Your mother died to protect you after all. And she's still…"

"What do you mean?" Harry asked, suddenly serious. "What do you mean my mother died to protect me? Are you saying her death is my fault?!"

"Of course not! It's Voldemort's! And Pettigrew's I guess. But not yours."

"But then why did you say she died to protect me? Voldemort was trying to kill us both, right?" _Oh shit. Of course, he doesn't know yet that Voldemort was after him. Because of some prophecy or something._

"Well, she died right next to your cot, right?" [Harry looked like he didn't know that. Draco ploughed on, hoping Harry would guess it was just another part of the Boy-Who-Lived mythos that he himself didn't know.] "So it just seemed logical she was trying to protect you. Of course she was. You were her child. I'm sure she did everything she could to protect you."

"I guess, yeah. It's just, well, I can't remember what it's like to have a parent care about you. I still can't quite make myself believe that Sirius truly wants me."

"Of course he does. Look, I might not be totally confident in the man's abilities as a parent, or his suitability, considering everything he's gone through. But after seeing him today, I do believe he does care about you. He wants to do a good job at being your Godfather. I really hope he does."

The holidays ended, and they had to submit their choices of subjects for third year. Draco did end up taking Divination, Ancient Runes and, Merlin help him, Muggle Studies. Ron and Harry ended up both taking Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Hermione was being very evasive about which subjects she'd picked, muttering something about waiting for McGonagall to get back to her about scheduling.

"No, but seriously, which subjects are you thinking of?" Draco asked her one evening after class, whilst they were sat in the Room of Requirement (and Ron and Harry were busy with a rather aggressive game of Wizard Chess). "You must have ruled some of them out. Surely you're not still insisting you need to take Muggle Studies?"

"But it sounds a fascinating perspective!"

"Hermione! You can't take everything!" Rather than looking bowed, Hermione looked, _secretive and guilty?_ "You can't!? Surely? How?"

"Professor McGonagall's waiting on…"

" _Scheduling arrangements._ Yes, I know, you've said. But there's no way , even with clever scheduling, that you can take everything. There simply isn't time!" _There's that guilty look again…_

_Time… No!? Surely not!?_

_"Time travel!?_ " Draco forcefully whispered, not wanting Ron and Harry to overhear. "Is that the secret ' _scheduling arrangement'_ you're not telling us? Time travel!?"

"You can't tell anyone!" Hermione begged. "One of the conditions of Professor McGonagall trying to arrange for me to borrow a Time-Turner is that I can't tell anyone!"

"She's trying to arrange a Time-Turner for you! An enchanted object that literally messes with the fabric of reality, and she's giving it to you just because you're incapable of picking which subjects to take!"

" _Well, I'm sorry I'm a more dedicated student than you._ Maybe if you tried harder in your subjects, you could have borrowed one too. You're clearly bright, but you seem to want to avoid studying as much as possible!" Hermione sniped back, clearly angry.

"I'm not jealous!" Draco insisted, "And I wasn't meaning to upset you. If anyone deserves to be able to take all the subjects, it's you. I just don't think academic curiosity is worth risking messing with time. It's too big a risk!"

"Well, Professor McGonagall trusts me enough to think it's a good idea! I mean, it might not happen yet, we still need the Ministry to approve it, but she thinks they will."

_Is no one round here sensible!?_ Hermione was meant to be the sensible one of his friends, and Draco had always had always reluctantly respected McGonagall, even in his first life. Sure, she could be biased towards her Gryffindors, but she at least seemed to try and rein in Dumbledore's most ridiculous ideas. He'd never had much respect for the Ministry, but if they thought giving a literal time machine to a child was a good idea, they were even worse than he thought!

"I can't deal with this…" Draco muttered, dashing out of the door, to Hermione's shock (and the bemusement of Harry and Ron, who finally looked up from their chess match to see the door slam closed behind him).

He found himself pacing around in the vicinity of McGonagall's office. _Hermione might not forgive me for this, but I can't do nothing!_

He went up to the door and knocked.

" _Malfoy?_ " McGonagall asked, surprised to see him outside her door. "Please don't tell me that you and your friends have managed to attract trouble yet again!"

"No. Well, not yet."

"Hmph…" she sighed, opening the door. "Well, I guess you'd best come in."

"So, what chaos am I to expect then? And how in Merlin's name, might I prevent it altogether?"

"Don't give Hermione a Time-Turner."

"What!?"

"Don't give Hermione a Time-Turner."

"How do you know about that? Did she tell you! I thought I could trust Miss Granger. Clearly I was wrong."

"You wasn't wrong. Well, not really. Hermione didn't tell me. Well, not until I guessed and then dragged it out of her."

"And who's been plotting the chaotic plan then?"

"What?"

"Well, you said you and your friends were planning on causing trouble."

"I didn't say we were _planning_ on trouble. But you know it'll only be a matter of time. Think of everything that's happened so far. That mess with Quirrell. The Chamber of Secrets. The troll. Even that fu… _fricking…_ detention in the woods. If that's the chaos we end up in without a potentially universe-destroying, paradox-creating enchanted object, think of what could happen if we had one."

"Miss Granger had assured me that she would only use the Time-Turner for attending classes. Not for _anything_ else."

"Don't you get it! Chaos follows us around. I think it's probably attracted to Harry, The-Boy-Who-Lived-To-Court-Danger, but I can't be certain! Please! I don't want to end up in some kind of nightmare realm when we accidentally destroy time! You can't give Hermione a Time-Turner. I understand that she wants to take every subject. I know you want to encourage her academic spirit! But surely you can see, it's not worth the risk!"

"Does Hermione know you're here, telling me this?"

"I'm not sure. And I know she may never forgive me for… interfering. But I can't just stand back. No one should have the power to mess with time!" _I should never have been given this power! What if I'd made everything worse! What if I still do!_

"I see that you're very worried about this, Mr Malfoy. Be assured that I will take what you have said into account. And if Miss Granger does still receive a Time-Turner, trust that every measure has been made to be sure it is safe." Draco nodded, but he wasn't so sure he believed her. "And Mr Malfoy, I think you should express your concerns to Miss Granger. She's your friend. I'm sure she'll her you out, and she deserves the chance to."

Draco crept back into the Room of Requirement, not sure what reaction his return would get. Hermione glared at him, and Ron and Harry looked puzzled.

"What's going on?" Ron asked.

"I need to speak with Hermione. On her own."

"I don't know what's just gone on between you too, but anything you want to say to her, you can say in front of us." Draco looked to Hermione and she shrugged, so he went and sat down on a seat in front of her, leaving room for Ron and Harry to join us. Hermione started explaining about the Time-Turner.

"…And that's when Draco stormed off. Where did you go?"

"To speak with Professor McGonagall. To try and persuade her it was a bad idea. I'm sorry, I know it was shitty of me, but I was worried about you. For you. It's not that I don't trust you with a Time-Turner, it's that I wouldn't trust anyone. I just think it's too big a risk. You know the chaos we end up in. Imagine how many magnitudes worse it could be, with the element of time travel involved!"

No one said anything for a few seconds. Draco thought Hermione was going to start expressing a well-prepared counter-argument, when Ron spoke up.

"I agree with Draco." That shocked everyone. Even though (miraculously) Ron and he were friends, Draco never thought he'd hear the guy taking his side in an argument against Hermione of all people. "It's too dangerous. I've heard stories about what happens to wizards who mess with time, and they're not pretty. And never mind how sensible you try to be, you just know something will go wrong. What if you'd had a Time-Turner a few weeks ago, back when Ginny was taken into the Chamber of Secrets? Can you really say we wouldn't have used it? Hell, I'd have probably insisted. I thought my sister might be dead! But we could have made everything a million times worse! Ruined everything! It's too big a temptation, and too big a risk. It was a dick move of Draco to go talk to McGonagall behind your back, but he's got a point."

Ron's argument seemed to clinch it. Hermione reluctantly agreed that maybe the Time-Turner wasn't a good idea, and went to tell Professor McGonagall that she'd changed her mind. With advice from her friends, she decided to drop Muggle Studies and Divination (Draco had showed her some of the textbooks from the library, and convinced her the latter subject was too wishy-washy for her tastes).

The new term brought the return of Quidditch, starting with the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff match (Slytherin still had to play Hufflepuff at the end of the term; _who messed up the scheduling?_ ) Draco had spent a while trying to remember who had won that match first time round, only to recall that the match hadn't gone ahead at all; cancelled at the last minute because of Hermione being petrified. No chance of that happening this time. Gryffindor went on to win comfortably (though Diggory did give Harry a good battle for the snitch). Slytherin would have to absolutely thrash Hufflepuff when it was their turn, in order to take the Cup from Gryffindor.

One evening, Harry slunk into their meet-up room looking rather glum.

"What's the matter, mate?" Ron asked.

"Dumbledore's fighting against Sirius getting custody of me."

"Dumbledore wants you to live with him!?"

"No, with the Dursleys. He says I'll be safer there. Some kind of protective wards, that rely on my living with my mother's kin."

"Really?" Hermione asked, "I've not heard about wards like that before." She was pulling the face she often did, like she wanted to run off to the library to research.

"Apparently they're very rare. And based on my mum sacrificing herself for me. So I guess you were right about that Draco…"

"Oh wow," Hermione mumbled. "What are you going to do? Are you going to give up on trying to stay with Sirius then."

"No. For the first time I can remember someone actually _wants_ me. I'm not giving up on that."

"Then we'll do whatever we can to help. I'll go to the library and research. Maybe we can find a way to transfer the wards or something."

Draco wrote to Sirius.

**_Black,_ **

**_I get the feeling the two of us will never see totally eye-to-eye. There's too much history within our family. But we both care about Harry, and that is why I am writing. I know there are difficulties between you and custody of him. I know how much the idea means to Harry. I don't know how much he has told you about his childhood with his aunt and uncle. He never says much, but I get the impression it was… problematic. He needs stability now. If you're just doing this because it sounds like a good idea, or out of some sense of duty, then give up now, and save him the hurt in the long-run. But if you really mean it, if you're going to be there through whatever it takes, for as long as he needs you, then fight for him, and I will fight on your behalf too. Believe me or not, but I want the best for him, and I mean that. Harry thinks that is you. Don't prove him wrong._ **

**_Kind regards,_ **

**_Draco Malfoy_ **

****

Now just to wait on a reply.

Surprisingly, the reply was fairly swift. And though it was not _friendly per se,_ it was at least polite. Draco was actually quite impressed; Sirius seemed to be showing more maturity than he had up until now, and did seem like he genuinely wanted to care for Harry.

So Draco wrote another letter, this time to his father.

_**Father,** _

_**If you want to make any in roads towards me forgiving you, then you will help ensure Sirius Black's custody bid for Harry Potter is successful. If it makes the task any more appealing, know you will be helping oppose the will of Albus Dumbledore.** _

_**Draco.** _

__

He didn't get a reply, but in one of his mother's missives, she mentioned that father had been supporting Sirius' case subtly in the Ministry. She worded it as if the man had implied he was doing it out of the kindness of his heart, though of course, she would have pegged that he must have some ulterior motive. Lucius Malfoy wasn't the kind of man to do _anything_ without an ulterior motive.

She also made the, frankly quite brilliant suggestion, that if security was the issue, then why don't Sirius and Harry move into the old Black townhouse, the wards of which were well known to be some of the best around.

Draco passed this on to Harry.

"But Sirius hated it there. I can't ask him to move back."

"But if he wants to get custody, he needs to show he's thinking in your best interests. And it's in your best interests to live somewhere as safe as possible. He needs to think about what's important to him. You should at least write and make the suggestion."

Hermione took it upon herself to help Harry draft the letter to be as persuasive as possible. She must have done a good job, because Black reluctantly agreed that maybe Harry would be safer at the Black House, rather than the nice apartment he'd just purchased. The point she'd made on how Sirius could live in the apartment whilst Harry was at Hogwarts, and only stay at the house with Harry during the holidays seemed to help convince him.

Whilst they waited for a decision to be made by whoever in the Ministry was in charge of making it, the school year continued. Teachers started trying to panic them into revising for their exams. _I guess we'll actually have to sit them this time (because weren't they cancelled last second year?)._

On one rare occasion, they were actually studying in the library, rather than the Room of Requirement (or more accurately, Hermione was studying, Harry was attempting to read a textbook, Ron was staring into space, and Draco was flipping through a book on curses that had looked vaguely interesting). Draco looked up from his book to find Luna Lovegood staring at him. He remembered the previous discussion they'd had about the girl, and the fact Harry apparently had no idea who she was.

"Erm… hello," he mumbled, rather surprised to see her, "Miss Lovegood, I believe? Can I help you?"

"I was looking at your wrackspurts."

"My… what?"

"Wrackspurts. Yours… don't seem to match."

"What? Is that bad?" He remembered the girl was pretty odd, but this seemed a particularly strange first meeting. Was she insulting him?

"No… not bad. Just odd. You're not who your wrackspurts expected you to be. Less immature. You care more about people, I think. Even if sometimes you pretend you don't."

In the silence left by Draco trying to run his mind over all of that, he heard Ron and Hermione bickering in the background (she wanted to ask more about wrackspurts, he was telling her not to bother).

"Oh, well, thank you. I think," he eventually replied. "Would you like to join us?" He pulled a chair out for her. The girl was odder than he'd known, but maybe she had use. Potter had kept her around first time round, after all. She seemed to have some kind of… _sight_? That might be a useful skill for his mission. "Have you met my friends? Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley, and Harry Potter?"

"No, yes, no." It took Draco a second to realise she was answering for each name respectively.

"So, yeah, erm… how you finding Hogwarts?" _Oh Merlin, how do you make small-talk!?_ Luckily Lovegood took his cue and went with it, talking on and on. Quite frankly, Draco only understood half of it. When he was at his most perplexed, he happened to spot Ginny Weasley walking past the table. _Well, this is a good as time as any to get these two to be friends._

"Ginny! Hey Ginny!" he called out to her. "Why don't you come join us." The girl gave him a weirded-out face and walked quickly away.

"Mate, what the hell was that?" Ron asked. "You just made Ginny make her 'I hate you, you weirdo' face, which I guess is nice to see her make at someone that's not me, and a change from the sad face she's had going recently, but still. What is with you? Why are you obsessed with trying to invite first-year girls to sit with us today?" He glanced at Luna. "Erm… no offence."

"None taken," she smiled. "I quite enjoyed sitting here today. Let me know when you're having a 'sitting with first-year girls day' in future." With that, she got up and walked off.

"Wait… no… that's not what this…" Draco started, but gave up on explanations on seeing the girl's retreating back.

"No but seriously, what was that?" Ron asked again.

"I don't know. I was trying to make them friends I guess?"

"That is not how you make friends."

"Is it not? Didn't I become friends with you, because Harry invited us both to sit with him on the Hogwarts Express?"

"Well… no, we became friends because you wouldn't stop trying to tag around Harry and I guess I gave in in the end?"

"As opposed to what you did?" That seemed to break Ron for a few minutes, as he thought through how exactly he'd become friends with Harry.

"Well, what do you guys think?" Draco asked Harry and Hermione. "How do you guys usually make friends?"

"Oh, don't ask me," Hermione replied, slightly bashful. "You guys are well, my first friends really."

"Snap," replied Harry. "No one in Primary school liked me. Dudley scared them away…"

"You had friends before Hogwarts, right?" Hermione asked. "You was already friends with Crabbe and Goyle, kind of?"

"Yeah, but that was just because their parents wanted to be friends with my parents, so we ended up together at social gatherings."

"So, in conclusion, none of us know how to make friends?" Hermione summarised.

"Well, that's a bit of a downer…" Ron muttered.

"No it's not. We're friends, aren't we? Why does it matter how we got there?" She beamed at them, but Draco just cringed.

"Well, that just got far too cheesy."

"No, it's…" Hermione started protesting.

"Come on, let's go get dinner," Ron suggested. Draco and Harry followed his lead and stood up too.

"Boys," Hermione sighed to herself, before following them.

One day in Herbology, Professor Sprout happened to mention how the Mandrakes were almost ready for harvesting. The reaction from the class was fairly ambivalent. _Oh shit, the petrified students. I kind of forgot about them…_ He almost certainly could have sourced some Mandrakes and had them un-petrified weeks ago. _Ah well, there doesn't seem much point now, since it won't be much longer. It's not like it seemed to do them any permanent harm last time round._

The final quidditch match of the year ended up being Slytherin versus Hufflepuff. Slytherin needed to win by 280 points to take the cup from Gryffindor. That meant Draco had to wait to catch the snitch. Diggory seemed to decide to fly right on his tail, following Draco's every move, feint or not. The sight of the boy's body, spread-eagled on that very quidditch pitch, crept into Draco's mind. It seemed a long time ago now. But it wasn't that far ahead. Two years. He was so young. With everything that had come after, Draco had almost forgotten about him, arguably one of the first victims of the second war with Voldemort. But seeing him now, inches from his face, smiling with innocent competitiveness, Draco knew this was another thing he had to change. The centaurs told him to 'fix everything'. This was another person he had to save.

Draco was shaken from his chain of thought by Diggory zooming off in a dive. _SHIT! THE SNITCH_! He dove after him, eyes flying around, trying to find a glimpse of gold. He thought he saw it for a millisecond, only to realise his eyes had been caught by Diggory's yellow quidditch robes. He continued to look around, double-taking when he saw the grin on Diggory's face. He was laughing at him.

"It was a feint!?" he asked incredulously. "Oh, you bastard. I thought Hufflepuffs were meant to be nice?"

"I thought Slytherin's were meant to be cunning?" he smirked back.

"Oh, it’s on!" Draco replied, flying straight at Diggory, who just managed to get out of the way in time.

They spent a few minutes basically having a flying-skills contest, weaving about around each other. It was remarkably fun.

"I'm not sure what the seekers are up to, but they seem to have forgotten that there's a quidditch game to win!" Lee Jordan's voice announced across the stadium. "Guys, you do realise you're meant to be chasing the snitch, not each other?"

With that, they went back to searching for the snitch (but the unusual sense of camaraderie between them remained). Eventually it flew right into their path. Slytherin was only 110 points up. If he caught the snitch now, Gryffindor would win the Cup. On the other hand, if Diggory got it, Slytherin would lose the match too. Getting the snitch it was…

There was a bit of friendly shoulder-barging, but in the end, the snitch ended up clutched in his palm. Cheers went up from two sides of the grandstand; Slytherins for winning the match, and Gryffindors for the Cup.

More celebrations followed a few days later when Colin Creevey, Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly-Headless Nick were unpetrified (as was Mrs Norris, but no one was really celebrating that). The terror of the Heir of Slytherin had been all but forgotten as the pupils looked towards something even more terrifying; exams. Draco was probably the most chilled in his year, as he a) didn't particularly care about how he did in his exams and b) knew he'd find them easy anyway.

Still, he was glad when they were over, and he and his friends were sat out by the lake, enjoying the… clouds (unfortunately the weather hadn't got the memo, but at least it wasn't raining). Ron was midway through telling a rather drawn out joke when Hedwig, Harry's owl, came flying towards them, bearing a letter. Harry took it, giving her a stroke and letting her help herself to some of his cake.

"It's from Sirius!" he announced. "He's got custody! I'm going to go live with him!"

"That's fantastic news Harry!" Hermione yelled, throwing her arms around him, "I'm so happy for you!"

"Yeah, congrats mate!" Ron added.

"That's great. I know how much you wanted this," Draco added.

So once they'd had the End of Term Feast (where Gryffindor won the House Cup again, but without Dumbledore having to give away last minute points to make it happen), they were once again on the Hogwarts Express, heading home. Harry seemed excited, but nervous, to be heading to his new home.

"Sirius says his house is still a bit of a work in progress. Apparently it's been left empty for quite a while. Well except for the House Elf, but Sirius says he's… a bit odd."

Before Hermione could start questioning about House Elf welfare, the snack trolley arrived, and the topic was dropped.

Surprisingly quickly (for a ridiculously slow mode of transport), they arrived at Kings Cross. They all promised to try and meet up over the summer, and started hugging goodbye. On leaving the train, he found his father and Sirius Black glaring daggers at each other. _Sigh._ And they're meant to be the adults. He waved a final goodbye to his friends before letting his parents lead him out of the station, before anything could kick off. All in all, it had been quite a successful year. He didn't want to mess it up now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! Second year is finally finished with! Thank you for sticking with me, I know it's taken a while. This chapter might be a bit bitty, but there was quite a few pieces to wrap up. There were some parts I weren't too sure about (and it maybe went too slushy in places), but I hope you like it. I'll be taking some time out now to work on some other projects, and actually come up with some more plot for Third Year, considering our Prisoner is already free. But I promise I will be back.  
> [And who messed up the quidditch schedule? That would be me...]


End file.
